Mental status is significantly associated with low back pain: a survey-based cross-sectional study among Japanese women.

OBJECTIVE: Low back pain (LBP) is a highly prevalent condition that poses significant patient burden. This cross-sectional study identified factors associated with LBP occurrence and developed a strategy to identify, prevent, and reduce LBP-related burden on patient health. A web-based questionnaire-answering system was used to assess the potential effects of LBP on mental health, assessing five domains (physical features, demographics, lifestyle, diet, and mental status) conceptually associated with hie, a common disease state traditionally described in the Japanese culture as a chilly sensation. RESULTS: Of 1000 women, 354 had and 646 did not have LBP. The Chi test identified 21 factors, and subsequent multivariate logistic regression indicated eight factors significantly associated with LBP: age, history of physician consultation regarding anemia, history of analgesic agents, dietary limitations, nocturia, sauna use, hie, and fatigue. Furthermore, women with LBP exhibited a significantly lower body temperature (BT) in the axilla/on the forehead than women without LBP. LBP and hie are subjective and potentially affected by patient mental status. Stress reduces blood circulation, causing hypothermia and possibly worsening LBP. Therefore, mental-health support is important for patients with LBP to reduce physiological stress. Hyperthermia therapy, a traditionally prescribed intervention, is a potential intervention for future studies.

An online intervention to promote mental health literacy for psychosis amongst parents of adolescents: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

AIM: This study evaluated an online mental health literacy intervention to improve help-seeking for psychosis amongst parents of adolescents. METHODS: A total of 2496 parents of first-grade junior high school students, recruited from a Japan-based survey company, participated in a randomized controlled trial in July 2016; participants were randomly allocated to the intervention (n = 1248) or control group (n = 1248). They were assessed at baseline and one-week post intervention. The intervention group received a 30-minute online educational programme that included a narrative of the mother of an adolescent with psychosis. RESULTS: There were no between-group differences in changes in the rate of 'no help-seeking' in any hypothetical situations of a child's psychosis and prodromal symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: The intervention might have been suboptimal to improve mental health literacy for psychosis amongst parents of adolescents. A narrative message from a service user may be helpful to encourage parents in help-seeking.

Emotional Effects on Factors Associated with Chronic Low Back Pain.

PURPOSE: Although chronic low back pain (CLBP) has profound effects on patients, society, and economy, its causes are difficult to identify. Psychogenic effects or social stress is known to affect CLBP; hence, investigation of its underlying causes requires a multifactorial approach. We determined the factors associated with CLBP by using an Internet-based survey. To prevent CLBP, we need to understand its cause and background. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A total of 1000 participants either with (+) or without (-) CLBP answered the Japanese Orthopaedic Association Back Pain Evaluation Questionnaire (JOABPEQ), which assesses five domains of CLBP: low back pain, lumbar function, walking ability, social life function and mental health. We also administered a new questionnaire for participants, that comprised five different domains: Body, Lifestyle, Emotion, Diet, and Social. To evaluate psychogenic effects on CLBP, we added two original factors, namely outshout and HIE, which have not yet been studied. HIE is a traditional concept (sense) of "feeling cold" or "chilly." All participants completed both questionnaires. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic regression analysis extracted four factors (sleep, room temperature, outshout, and HIE) that were associated with CLBP. The mental health domain was assessed using the JOABPEQ for each of these factors. The factors outshout and HIE differed between CLBP (+) and CLBP (-) patients. CLBP (-) participants also showed a difference in Sleep and HIE factors. CONCLUSION: Among psychogenic effects, Emotion was common to all the four extracted factors. There was no common physical divisor. Therefore, we hypothesized that acute low back pain might develop into CLBP in the presence of psychological stress or other emotional factors such as outshout or HIE. Hence, we need to consider both physical and psychogenic effects in the prevention and treatment of CLBP. Furthermore, appropriate evaluation and treatment of psychological stress may be effective in reducing CLBP.

Body Weight Reduction Results in Favorable Changes in Blood Pressure, Serum Lipids, and Blood Sugar in Middle-Aged Japanese Persons: A 5-Year Interval Observational Study of 26,824 Cases.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated the relationships between body weight (BWt) and metabolic syndrome (MS) risk factors to elucidate the effect of BWt (?BWt) change and body mass index (BMI) on these factors in the Japanese population. METHODS: Data were collected on MS-related parameters measured during two annual examinations of 16,640 men (mean age: 41.7±11.6 years) and 10,184 women (mean age: 45.0±12.2 years) without prior treatment of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, or dyslipidemia in 2006 and 2011 in Fukuoka, Japan. The subjects were divided into three groups according to BMI in 2006 (low, middle and high BMI) and into three groups according to change in BMI between 2006 and 2011 (decreased, stable, and increased BMI). Mean values for blood pressure (BP), systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), triglycerides (TG), hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and fasting blood glucose (FBG) for each group were determined by sex and subjected to statistical analysis for comparison. RESULTS: High BMI (>26) was associated with higher SBP, LDL-C, FBG, and TG in both sexes. An increase≥1.1 BMI units in 5 years was associated with increased DBP, LDL-C, TG, HbA1c, and FBG and decreased HDL-C. In contrast, decreased BMI was associated with decreased BP and LDL-C and increased HDL-C in both sexes, and decreased TG in men and FBG in women. CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining a desirable weight or losing weight may help prevent hypertension and MS, even in non-obese individuals.

Reliability and validity of the workplace social distance scale.

Self-stigma, defined by a negative attitude toward oneself combined with the consciousness of being a target of prejudice, is a critical problem for psychiatric patients. Self-stigma studies among psychiatric patients have indicated that high stigma is predictive of detrimental effects such as the delay of treatment and decreases in social participation in patients, and levels of self-stigma should be statistically evaluated. In this study, we developed the Workplace Social Distance Scale (WSDS), rephrasing the eight items of the Japanese version of the Social Distance Scale (SDSJ) to apply to the work setting in Japan. We examined the reliability and validity of the WSDS among 83 psychiatric patients. Factor analysis extracted three factors from the scale items: "work relations," "shallow relationships," and "employment." These factors are similar to the assessment factors of the SDSJ. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the WSDS was 0.753. The split-half reliability for the WSDS was 0.801, indicating significant correlations. In addition, the WSDS was significantly correlated with the SDSJ. These findings suggest that the WSDS represents an approximation of self-stigma in the workplace among psychiatric patients. Our study assessed the reliability and validity of the WSDS for measuring self-stigma in Japan. Future studies should investigate the reliability and validity of the scale in other countries.

Economic impact of combination therapy with infliximab plus azathioprine for drug-refractory Crohn's disease: a cost-effectiveness analysis.

BACKGROUND: Combination therapy with infliximab (IFX) and azathioprine (AZA) is significantly more effective for treatment of active Crohn's disease (CD) than IFX monotherapy. However, AZA is associated with an increased risk of lymphoma in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. AIM: To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of combination therapy with IFX plus AZA for drug-refractory CD. METHODS: A decision analysis model is constructed to compare, over a time horizon of 1year, the cost-effectiveness of combination therapy with IFX plus AZA and that of IFX monotherapy for CD patients refractory to conventional non-anti-TNF-α therapy. The treatment efficacy, adverse effects, quality-of-life scores, and treatment costs are derived from published data. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses are performed to estimate the uncertainty in the results. RESULTS: The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of combination therapy with IFX plus AZA is 24,917 GBP/QALY when compared with IFX monotherapy. The sensitivity analyses reveal that the utility score of nonresponding active disease has the strongest influence on the cost-effectiveness, with ICERs ranging from 17,147 to 45,564 GBP/QALY. Assuming that policy makers are willing to pay 30,000 GBP/QALY, the probability that combination therapy with IFX plus AZA is cost-effective is 0.750. CONCLUSIONS: Combination therapy with IFX plus AZA appears to be a cost-effective treatment for drug-refractory CD when compared with IFX monotherapy. Furthermore, the additional lymphoma risk of combination therapy has little significance on its cost-effectiveness.

Comparison of the levels of accuracy of an artificial neural network model and a logistic regression model for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis.

An accurate diagnosis of acute appendicitis in the early stage is often difficult, and decision support tools to improve such a diagnosis might be required. This study compared the levels of accuracy of artificial neural network models and logistic regression models for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Data from 169 patients presenting with acute abdomen were used for the analyses. Nine variables were used for the evaluation of the accuracy of the two models. The constructed models were validated by the ".632+ bootstrap method". The levels of accuracy of the two models for diagnosis were compared by error rate and areas under receiver operating characteristic curves. The artificial neural network models provided more accurate results than did the logistic regression models for both indices, especially when categorical variables or normalized variables were used. The most accurate diagnosis was obtained by the artificial neural network model using normalized variables.