News

A research team led by Dr. Masamitsu Kamata, a lecturer at the University of Tokyo (part-time lecturer at our department), has compiled a paper on the verification of “Pacific League Walk,” a pedometer application that allows users to support the six Pacific League professional baseball teams by the number of steps they take each day, and the paper was published in the American academic journal “Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.”

The app is the official app of the six Pacific League baseball teams, and was released free of charge in March 2016. It has won the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare’s Excellence Award (Group Category) at “the 9th Let’s Increase Healthy Life Expectancy! Award” .

The paper (open access) is here.

Large-Scale Fandom-based Gamification Intervention to Increase Physical Activity. Masamitsu Kamada, Hana Hayashi et al.
Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Publish Ahead of Print, 8 2021

“U.S. academic journal publishes paper examining ‘Pacific League Walk’ as ‘new value to society'” | Full-Count

「パ・リーグウォーク」の検証論文が米学術誌に掲載「社会へ新しい価値を」

A paper examining the “Pacific League Walk” is published in the Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine – Professional Baseball : Nikkan Sports.

https://www.nikkansports.com/baseball/news/202108300000412.html

Validation paper on the pedometer app “Pacific League Walk” published in the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine |BASEBALL KING

https://baseballking.jp/ns/293419

Article on the effectiveness of the pedometer app “Pacific League Walk” published in the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine-Sponich Sponichi Annex Baseball

https://www.sponichi.co.jp/baseball/news/2021/08/30/kiji/20210830s00001173475000c.html

Article on the effectiveness of the pedometer app “Pacific League Walk” published in the Journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.|Sports hochi

https://hochi.news/articles/20210830-OHT1T51155.html

Kosuke Inoue made a press release online on September 27, 2021 on the results of a study showing the above relationship.

The results were published online in the international journal “Hypertension” on September 13, 2021, and have been covered by the U.S. media, including CNN.

For more information, please see the press release.

Click here to visit Kosuke Inoue’s website.

Our laboratory has been conducting research using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES). Professor Katsunori Kondo (Chiba University), who acts as the representative director of JAGES, will speak at the 27th Symposium of the Institute for Health Economics and Policy and introduce the efforts and results of JAGES.

Date and time: October 22, 2021(Fri), 13:00-16:00 (login starts at 12:30)

Theme: “Frailty Prevention in the Age of Covid19” – Toward a New Paradigm for Health Promotion Policy in a Super-Aging Society

Method: Online only

Participation fee: Free of charge for supporting members, 3,000 yen for general public (advance transfer, non-refundable).

application deadline: October 15, 2021 (Fri)

The 27th Symposium of the Institute for Health Economics and Policy

Naoki Kondo has been involved in the creation of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Health Promotion Plan and its evaluation as an academician for the past several years.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is emphasizing the development of a social environment that fosters connections in the community as an intervention for health promotion. This could be a good hint for current measures against lonely and isolation.

As examples of social environment improvement, activities at public bathhouses and driving schools are also introduced.

https://www.fukushihoken.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/kensui/kankyo/index.html

About Tokyo Metropolitan Government Health Promotion Plan 21 (Second Stage)

Naoki Kondo gave a special lecture on the theme of “Relationships with others and Health: Toward the Creation of a Symbiotic Society in the Covid19 Era” on the second day of the 40th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association for Exercise Therapy and Prevention held at Doshisha University over two days on September 11 and 12.

Our part-time lecturer, Dr. Masamitsu Kamada (University of Tokyo) and visiting researcher, Dr. Tomoki Nakaya (Tohoku University) also participated as speakers.

Naoki Kondo will participate as a commentator in the panel discussion of the 6th J-HPH Conference 2021.

Theme: Looking ahead to the post-covid19 era: Contributing to the creation of a just society through health promotion.

Holding method: online

Date: LIVE  November 13, 2021 (Sat) 13:00-17:10

On demand broadcasting and poster session  October 30 (Sat) – November 28 (Sun), 2021

Registration: Pre-registration required (fee required) 　Click here to register.

*Naoki Kondo Date and Time November, 2021(Sat) 13:06〜14:36

Panel Discussion Theme: “Covid 19 pandemic Health Disparities Elimination Practices and Future Challenges: From the Field of Health Services and the Community”

The 6th J-HPH Conference 2nd Report Flyer (both sides)

The article by Naoki Kondo that appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Public Assistance Research (No. 261) has been included in CiNii.

Public Assistance Research : A Journal of Handmade from the Field of Welfare (261), 4-7, 2021-04  National Public Assistance Research Association.

https://ci.nii.ac.jp/naid/40022589615

The latest issue of “Lecture on Causal Inference for Clinical and Epidemiological Research,” a series of articles by Kosuke Inoue, has been published in the Medical News.

No.6 Adjusting confounding using propensity score analysis (2021.9.6 Weekly Medical News(Usual number) ：From No.3435)

Click here for Kosuke Inoue’s website.

A paper by Dr. Masashige Saito of Nihon Fukushi University, who is collaborating with Naoki Kondo, has been published in the Japanese Journal of Public Health.

Masashige Saito, Taishi Tsuji, Kinya Fujita, Naoki Kondo, Jun Aida, Toshiyuki Ojima, and Katsunori Kondo(2021). Accumulated long-term care benefits by risk assessment scales for incident functional disability: A six-year follow up study of long term care receipt data. Japanese Journal of Public Health,21-056

Click here for pdf.

A new paper has been published by Hypertention.

Abstract

Psychosocial stress is a key contributing factor to the pathogenesis of hypertension and cardiovascular disease. We examined the association of urinary stress hormone levels with incident hypertension and cardiovascular events. This prospective cohort study included 412 adults (age 48-87 years) free of hypertension from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis with measurements of urinary stress hormones (norepinephrine, epinephrine, dopamine, and cortisol). Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the adjusted hazard ratio (aHR) of incident hypertension and cardiovascular events according to urinary stress hormone levels. The average age (SD) was 61.2 (9.1) years, and 50% were female. Over a median follow-up of 6.5 years, there was an increased risk of incident hypertension per doubling of norepinephrine (aHR, 1.31 [95% CI, 1.06-1.61]), epinephrine (aHR, 1.21 [95% CI, 1.03-1.41]), dopamine (aHR, 1.28 [95% CI, 1.00-1.64]), and cortisol (aHR, 1.23 [95% CI, 1.04-1.44]). The associations were generally stronger among participants <60 years than those ≥60 years, particularly for dopamine (P-for-interaction, 0.04) and cortisol (P-for-interaction, 0.04). Over a median follow-up of 11.2 years, there was an increased risk of incident cardiovascular events per doubling of cortisol (aHR, 1.90 [95% CI, 1.16-3.09]), but not for catecholamines. In this multiethnic population study, higher urinary stress hormone levels were associated with an increased risk of incident hypertension. Urinary cortisol levels were also associated with an increased risk of incident cardiovascular events. Our findings highlight a potentially important role of stress hormones in the prevention and treatment of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases.

Keywords: blood pressure; cardiovascular diseases; cortisol; dopamine; epinephrine; norepinephrine.