News

My presentation videos

Here is the list of the videos of the Webinars I attended on YouTube.

Older persons and COVID-19

Dr Naoki Kondo, Presentation: Importance of social connection for health and wellbeing of older people: lessons from Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study

Webinar by Help Age International and more. June 2020

Naoki Kondo. Achieving health equity via community organizing: two real-world intervention studies in Japan

ISBNPA Webinar SIG Socio-Economic Inequalities. March 2020

 

New Book：The Atlas of Health Inequalities in Japan

we published a new book from Springer: The Atlas of Health Inequalities in Japan.

From the book website:

This new health atlas of Japan presents a series of maps about the health of the contemporary Japanese population, i.e. detailed maps of health indicators in small areas using cartograms. This is the first comprehensive small-area based health atlas about contemporary Japan using vital statistics from 1995-2014. Each map is supplemented with concise explanations written by leading epidemiologists and health geographers in Japan. The book employs various cutting-edge methods in spatial epidemiology, Bayesian spatial smoothing for the reliable mapping of mortality indices,  advanced cartographic transformations using the concept of aerial cartograms, and summary statistics of socioeconomic health inequalities. The atlas highlights geographical aspects of social gradients in health by comparing mortality maps with distribution of deprivation index during the recent long-lasting economic stagnation period of Japan known as the lost decades. This health atlas will be a useful resource for international comparisons between Japan and other advanced countries in terms of health and related socioeconomic disparities between regions. It will be of interest to public health practitioners, administrators, researchers and students working on health geography and public health.

 

New paper: stronger associations between oberweight, underweight, and mortality among poor Japanese men

Influence of socioeconomic status on the association between bodymass index and cause-specific mortality among older Japanese adults: The AGES Cohort Study

Miyo Nakade, Daisuke Takagi, Kayo Suzuki, Jun Aida, Toshiyuki Ojima, Katsunori Kondo, Hiroshi Hirai, Naoki Kondo

Preventive Medicine 77 (2015) 112-118
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2015.05.015

Objective.Many studies have suggested a U-shaped curve for the association between body size andmortality risks, i.e., mortality risks increase in those who are both overweight and underweight. The strength of the associationsmay vary according to socioeconomic statuses (SES), as they determine levels of access to healthcare and psychosocial stresses. We investigated the modifying effects of SES on the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and mortality.

Method.We used prospective cohort data of participants in the Aichi Gerontological Evaluation Study in 2003(n=14,931),whowere 65 years or older and physically and cognitively independent at baseline, and residing in eightmunicipalities in Japan. Data on all-causesmortality andmortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease, and respiratory disease was obtained from municipal government registries.

Results. Proportional hazard regression analyses showed that, among men, the associations between overweight (BMI ? 25 kg/m2) and highermortality risks by any causewere stronger among lower incomegroups. Even adjusting for multiple confounding factors, hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for mortality by all causes among low income group (household income b 1.5 million yen) were 1.96 (1.02-3.73) for overweight compared with BMIs between 23.0 and 24.9, whereas they were 0.94 (0.57-1.38) among men in high income group (income N 3 million yen). The modifying effects of income were not marked among women.

Conclusion. Household income, which may directly reflect accessibility to healthcare and psychosocial stress among older Japanese men, may be an important modifying factor in the health risks attributable to overweight.

New article: Distance to retail stores and risk of being homebound among older adults in a city severely affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake

Our new paper was published from the journal: Age and Ageing! The paper was free for download!

Abstract

Background: after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, inactivity and the homebound status of older victims in affected areas have been a serious public health concern owing to the victims’ prolonged existence as evacuees in mountainous areas.

Objective: to evaluate the association between distances to retail stores and risks of being homebound.

Design: secondary analysis of cross-sectional interview survey data with a geographical information analysis.

Setting: Rikuzentakata, Iwate, a municipality seriously damaged by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Subjects: all Rikuzentakata residents aged 65 or older except for those living in temporary housing (n = 2,327).

Methods: we calculated road distances between each residential address and retail stores, hawker sites and shopping bus stops, accounting for the extra load caused by walking on slopes. The prevalence ratio of being homebound adjusted for age, source of income and morbidity by road distance was estimated using Poisson regression with a generalised estimating equation.

Results: those living at distances of 1,200 m or more were 1.78 (95% confidence intervals, 1.03–3.08) times more likely to be homebound (going out only every 4 or more days a week) among men and 1.85 (1.13-3.02) among women, compared with those residing in places

Conclusions: access to daily needs is essential to prevent homebound status. Post-disaster community diagnosis in terms of the built environment is important for strategic community restoration.

Our study on TV news: children do not complete vaccination schedule if mother cannot take parental leave after delivery

Our paper on the previous post (below) was broadcasted by NHK: Japan’s public broadcaster!

Maternal work conditions, socioeconomic and educational status, and vaccination of children: A community-based household survey in Japan

Michiko Uedaa, Naoki Kondo, Misato Takada, Hideki Hashimoto

Objective

This study examined how maternal work-related factors, including the availability of paid maternal leave, affect childhood vaccination status. Relatively little is known about the association between the employment status of mothers and the vaccination status of their children.

Method

We examined data from the Japanese Study on Stratification, Health, Income, and Neighborhood (J-SHINE), an ongoing epidemiologic household panel study in Japan. We used surveys taken in 2010–2011 in this study.

Results

We found that mothers who returned to work after giving birth were much less likely to follow recommended vaccine schedules for their children compared with mothers who stayed at home and those who had left the workforce by the time of childbirth. However, taking parental leave significantly reduced the risk of not being up-to-date with the vaccination schedule at 36 months of age. We also found that children whose mother was younger and less educated, and those from an economically deprived family were at a high risk of not being up-to-date with the vaccination status at 36 months of age.

Conclusion

Because vaccination is free and widely available in Japan, our findings indicate that provision of free vaccinations is not sufficient to achieve high vaccination rates.

The Journal: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743514001844