[A survey on the utilization of internet services to collect job information among medical students and initiation of video public relations activities for the recruitment of public health physicians based on the survey results].

Objectives　It is difficult for medical students to obtain information about public health physicians because there are very few public health physicians near them. To improve this situation, we surveyed the utilization of internet services to collect job information among medical students and produced six videos and conducted public relations activities for the recruitment of public health physicians based on the survey results.Methods　The subjects of the survey were medical students in their third year or above from 18 universities. Public health teachers in these 18 universities sent their students anonymous self-administered questionnaires created with Google Forms mainly by e-mail. The questionnaires included the following items "internet services used to collect job information," "desired length of each video for knowing job information," and "information you want to know about your future work." The responses were reflected in the length and the content of the videos and the settings for their distribution.Results　Responses were obtained from a total of 491 medical students, including 14 third-year students, 177 fifth-year students, and 300 sixth-year students. Homepages were the most frequently used online source for collecting job information (94.7%), followed by blogs (42.0%), Twitter (32.6%), and YouTube (18.9%). Medical students are less likely to use social networking services for collecting job information compared with non-medical job-hunting students. Regarding the length of the videos, 55.8% of the respondents preferred the length of one video to be less than 5 minutes, and 95.1% preferred it to be less than 10 minutes. Almost all of the respondents (93.1%) wanted to know the atmosphere of young public health physicians, and 74.1% also wanted to know the atmosphere of veteran physicians. Based on these results, we selected six public health physicians including young and veteran physicians and produced interview videos that conveyed the atmosphere of each doctor within 5 minutes per person. We refurbished the banner on the top page of the Japanese Association of Public Health Center Directors so that the videos uploaded to YouTube could be watched.Conclusion　We clarified the current situation of the utilization of internet services for job-hunting activities among medical students and were able to initiate video public relations activities for the recruitment of public health physicians in accordance with the needs. It is necessary to increase awareness of the video platform among medical students and clinicians by deepening cooperation with local governments, universities, and medical institutions and expanding the human network both online and in person.

The new school absentees reporting system for pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 infection in Japan.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the new Japanese School Absentees Reporting System for Infectious Disease (SARSID) for pandemic influenza A/H1N1 2009 infection in comparison with the National epidemiological Surveillance of Infectious Disease (NESID). METHODS: We used data of 53,223 students (97.7%) in Takamatsu city Japan. Data regarding school absentees in SARSID was compared with that in NESID from Oct 13, 2009 to Jan 12, 2010. RESULTS: Similar trends were observed both in SARSID and NESID. However, the epidemic trend for influenza in SARSID was thought to be more sensitive than that in NESID. CONCLUSION: The epidemic trend for influenza among school-aged children could be easily and rapidly assessed by SARSID compared to NESID. SARSID might be useful for detecting the epidemic trend of influenza.

Evaluation of health-related quality of life using EQ-5D in Takamatsu, Japan.

OBJECTIVES: Healthy Japan 21 (Japanese National Health Promotion in the 21st Century) was started in 2000 to promote extension of healthy life expectancy and improve health-related quality of life (HRQOL). The present study aims to describe HRQOL of Japanese subjects using the EuroQol questionnaire (EQ-5D) and investigate the influence of social background, health-related behaviors, and chronic conditions on HRQOL using representatives in Takamatsu, Japan. METHODS: Data were obtained from a 2005 Takamatsu City health survey mailed to 2,500 randomly selected Japanese individuals in Takamatsu, a medium-sized city. We examined data from 915 Japanese adults. The questionnaire addressed social background, health-related behaviors, chronic conditions, EQ-5D items, and self-rated health. The impact of social background, health-related behaviors, and chronic conditions on Japanese HRQOL was examined through multivariate regression, adjusting for age and sex. RESULTS: EQ-5D scores decreased with age, particularly for respondents who were unemployed or retired. Adjusting for sex and age, the results showed that age, unemployment/retirement, feeling severe stress, and musculoskeletal and gastrointestinal diseases were significantly associated with decreased HRQOL. Conversely, sufficient sleep (7-8 h/day) and having a hobby were significantly associated with increased HRQOL. CONCLUSIONS: Information is lacking regarding HRQOL in Japanese populations. This study furthers our understanding of some important determinants influencing Japanese HRQOL, using the EQ-5D in Takamatsu, Japan. Our results also resembled some findings from similar studies in other countries. We hope to use the EQ-5D with other health survey questionnaires to gather more data about HRQOL of Japanese people.