Midori Ishikawa

Multi-professional meetings on health checks and communication in providing nutritional guidance for infants and toddlers in Japan: a cross-sectional, national survey-based study

BackgroundHealth personnel must provide continuous support in response to problematic results from health checks of infants and toddlers (hereinafter “infant[s]”). Among this support, it is important for health personnel to provide nutritional guidance to families as a collaborative effort between the staff from multiple disciplines and community organizations. This study aimed to clarify the factors affecting collaboration with community organizations in providing nutritional guidance to families following health checks for infants in Japan.MethodsThe design of this study consisted of a cross-sectional, multilevel survey. A self-administered questionnaire was mailed to all municipalities (1741 towns and cities) in Japan to be completed by the person responsible for nutrition advice. The research was performed in August 2015. We obtained 988 valid responses (response rate of 56.7%).To identify the factors that affect the collaboration with community organizations in providing nutritional guidance, we determined how municipalities responded to infants needing support (five items), how municipalities evaluated health guidance (five items), the number of distributed maternal and child health handbooks, and the number of infants who received follow-up evaluations.ResultsThe results of multivariate analyses showed that the factors related to successful community collaboration in providing nutritional guidance included holding a multi-professional staff meeting after health checks (post-conference; odds ratio [OR], 2.34; P = 0.001); following up children suspected of having developmental and mental disabilities or delays before entering elementary school (OR, 1.77; P = 0.0004); and considering dental caries data from dental checkups in providing health guidance (OR, 1.56; P = 0.003).ConclusionsHolding a multi-professional meeting after infant health checks (post-conference) was strongly associated with community collaboration in providing nutritional guidance for infants.

Physical and social determinants of dietary variety among older adults living alone in Japan

Food security and sufficient nutrient intake are critical to longevity and active aging. The present study aimed to elucidate physical and social factors related to dietary variety among single‐living older adults in Japanese communities.