Considering the effects purchase food balance guide utilizing cable television has on the user.

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to empirically investigate the needfulness of the Purchased Foodstuffs Balance Guide as designed for its users and also consider its influence on better dietary habits. METHODS: The participants included 89 students who attended City A's Senior Citizens' College, and the reality of their ICT and dietary habits were surveyed. Next, 27 cable television subscribers were asked to be monitors for testing the Guide. The study took place during a period of September 2013 to March 2014. RESULTS: The results indicated that, for the senior citizens, ICT use was centred on communication with their families and that their awareness or desire was a low in terms of the functions of information transmission, entertainment and receipt of services. Next, after using the Purchased Foodstuffs Balance Guide, its needfulness and its influence on better food habits were examined. As a result, the most frequent response by the participants was that they 'understood [their own] purchasing tendencies' (36.0%), followed by the three items: 'The Guide is useful for managing my nutrition', 'The Guide enabled me to know what foodstuffs are required to supplement my diet' and 'I became more careful about purchasing foodstuffs in a balanced way.' CONCLUSIONS: The study showed that 70% of the participants felt that the Purchased Foodstuffs Balance Guide was useful and make decisions when purchasing food using the Guide. This indicates the possibility that the Guide exerts a positive influence on users' awareness of nutritional balance, foodstuff purchasing choices and dietary habits.

Relationship between anthropometric factors, radiation exposure, and colon cancer incidence in the Life Span Study cohort of atomic bomb survivors.

PURPOSE: We examined colon cancer risk in atomic bomb survivors to investigate whether excess body weight after the bombings alters sensitivity to radiation effects. METHODS: Of the 56,064 Japanese atomic bomb survivors with follow-up through 2002 with self-reported anthropometric data obtained from periodic mail surveys, 1,142 were diagnosed with colon cancer. We evaluated the influence of body mass index (BMI) and height on radiation-associated colon cancer risk using Poisson regression. RESULTS: We observed a similar linear dose-response relationship for the 56,064 subjects included in our analysis and the entire cohort of Japanese atomic bomb survivors [excess relative risk (ERR) per Gray (Gy) = 0.53, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.25-0.86]. Elevation in earliest reported BMI, BMI reported closest to colon cancer diagnosis, and time-varying BMI were associated with an elevated risk of colon cancer [relative risk (RR) per 5 kg/m(2) increase in BMI = 1.14, 95 % CI 1.03-1.26; RR = 1.16, 95 % CI 1.05-1.27; and RR = 1.15, 95 % CI 1.04-1.27, respectively]. Height was not significantly related to colon cancer risk. Inclusion of anthropometric variables in models had little impact on radiation risk estimates, and there was no evidence that sensitivity to the effect of radiation on colon cancer risk depended on BMI. CONCLUSIONS: Radiation exposure and BMI are both risk factors for colon cancer. BMI at various times after exposure to the atomic bombings does not significantly influence the relationship between radiation dose and colon cancer risk, suggesting that BMI and radiation impact colon cancer risk independently of each other.

Radiation exposure and circulatory disease risk: Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb survivor data, 1950-2003.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the degree to which ionising radiation confers risk of mortality from heart disease and stroke. DESIGN: Prospective cohort study with more than 50 years of follow-up. SETTING: Atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. PARTICIPANTS: 86 611 Life Span Study cohort members with individually estimated radiation doses from 0 to >3 Gy (86% received <0.2 Gy). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Mortality from stroke or heart disease as the underlying cause of death and dose-response relations with atomic bomb radiation. RESULTS: About 9600 participants died of stroke and 8400 died of heart disease between 1950 and 2003. For stroke, the estimated excess relative risk per gray was 9% (95% confidence interval 1% to 17%, P=0.02) on the basis of a linear dose-response model, but an indication of possible upward curvature suggested relatively little risk at low doses. For heart disease, the estimated excess relative risk per gray was 14% (6% to 23%, P<0.001); a linear model provided the best fit, suggesting excess risk even at lower doses. However, the dose-response effect over the restricted dose range of 0 to 0.5 Gy was not significant. Prospective data on smoking, alcohol intake, education, occupation, obesity, and diabetes had almost no impact on the radiation risk estimates for either stroke or heart disease, and misdiagnosis of cancers as circulatory diseases could not account for the associations seen. CONCLUSION: Doses above 0.5 Gy are associated with an elevated risk of both stroke and heart disease, but the degree of risk at lower doses is unclear. Stroke and heart disease together account for about one third as many radiation associated excess deaths as do cancers among atomic bomb survivors.