Publications by authors named "Atsushi Nakagomi"

Background: Evidence remains inadequate regarding the benefits of incentive programs promoting healthy activities, particularly among older adults. This longitudinal study examined the associations of participation in the points-based health incentive program with an array of subsequent health and well-being outcomes, including ones the program did not explicitly incentivize, among older adults in Japan.

Participants And Setting: We used three-wave data (2020, 2021, and 2022) from Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (n = 2504), a cohort study of functionally independent individuals aged ≥ 65 years.

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Introduction: Social capital is a common target of intervention used by policymakers to address the health challenges of older adults. However, evidence for the effectiveness of social capital interventions remain still clearly lacking.

Methods: This study used a longitudinal study design.

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Objectives The Health Japan 21 initiative (third term) requires establishing an environment that allows people of all ages to lead healthy lives without excessive exertion. Such environments should be created by local governments, in collaboration with multiple stakeholders. Such initiatives carry the potential for collective impact, wherein multiple stakeholders with varying perspectives work together to solve societal challenges.

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Purpose: Serviced Housing for Older People (SHOP) in Japan offers barrier-free living environments and supportive services to enhance the health and well-being of older adults. This study aimed to compare the health and well-being of SHOP residents with community-dwelling older adults and to compare factors that may influence them.

Methods: This cross-sectional study utilized propensity score matching to compare the health and well-being of 1,080 SHOP residents (69.

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Background & Aims: Internet use among older adults may reduce the risk of dementia, but it remains unknown how the effects vary across individuals. The aim of this study was to rigorously examine heterogeneity in the association between internet use and dementia among older adults with a machine learning approach.

Methods: This cohort study used data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study involving functionally independent adults aged 65 or older (n = 5,451).

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Background: Food diversity plays an important role in people's healthy and affluent lives. However, poverty and eating alone can create multi-dimensional barriers to food diversity. Although public assistance programs guarantee a minimum income to people in need, financial support alone may not be sufficient to support the health of people in poverty.

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Purpose: Human flourishing is a multidimensional concept that encompasses happiness and life satisfaction (happiness), mental and physical health (health), meaning and purpose (purpose), character and virtue (character), and close social relationships (social), which are characterized by comprehensive well-being. This cross-sectional study investigated the association of oral health, number of remaining teeth, and prosthesis use with multidimensional flourishing.

Methods: Data was sourced from the 2022 wave of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based survey of independent individuals aged 65 years or older.

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Well-being (WB) extends beyond physical health, as defined by the World Health Organization and encompasses two aspects: (1) long-term WB (LWB), such as overall life satisfaction; and (2) momentary WB (MWB), such as immediate mood. While research has demonstrated a positive association between one's environment and LWB, limited studies have explored the association between environmental characteristics and MWB. We applied the experience sampling method (ESM) to collect data on location, perceived environmental characteristics, MWB, and LWB of adult participants living in Kashiwa-no-ha area, Kashiwa City, Japan.

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Background: Digital gaming has become increasingly popular among older adults, potentially offering cognitive, social, and physical benefits. However, its broader impact on health and well-being, particularly in real-world settings, remains unclear.

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the multidimensional effects of digital gaming on health and well-being among older adults, using data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study conducted in Matsudo City, Chiba, Japan.

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Background: Bleeding are common in cardiac surgery, with significant impacts on transfusion-related complications and patient prognosis. This study aimed to determine the differences in perioperative blood loss, transfusion rates, and the incidence of postoperative pulmonary complications (PPCs) with and without the use of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) in patients undergoing off-pump coronary artery bypass graft surgery (OPCAB).

Methods: This single-center, retrospective study included 106 adult patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery without cardiopulmonary bypass from January 2018 to March 2022.

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Background: Older adults might not use computers due to psychological barriers, environmental barriers such as not owning a computer or lack of internet access, and health-related barriers such as difficulties with fine motor skills, low cognitive function, or low vision. Given the health benefits of internet use among older adults, inadequate use of the internet is an urgent public health issue in many countries.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether visual impairment is associated with internet use in a population-based sample of older adults.

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Background: To prevent the further development of cardiovascular diseases, it is a growing global priority to detect untreated hypertension in patients and ensure adequate blood pressure control via drug therapy. However, few effective tools that facilitate the initiation of antihypertensive medications among such patients have been identified.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether a mobile health (mHealth) app facilitates the initiation of antihypertensive medications among patients with untreated hypertension.

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Background: Engaging in social activities, interacting with peers, and participating in community events may promote health and well-being. Recently, interventions leveraging information and communications technology have emerged as potent tools for promoting social connections and well-being. Particularly, messenger apps have become an integral part of our daily lives, facilitating communication, information dissemination, and social interaction.

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Post-induction hypotension (PIH) during general anesthesia is a serious concern due to its high incidence and association with adverse postoperative outcomes and prognosis. We prospectively enrolled consecutive 1,603 patients scheduled for non-cardiac and cardiac surgery under general anesthesia. The primary outcome was defined as the lowest mean blood pressure from induction of general anesthesia to the start of surgery: post-induction blood pressure (PIB).

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Article Synopsis
  • Social participation is essential for the well-being of older adults, but often declines due to aging factors; mobile health apps might help but their impact is not thoroughly studied.
  • A trial tested a mobile app, ESP, designed to boost social participation and physical activity in older adults by offering features like self-monitoring and gamification, with 181 participants divided into intervention and control groups.
  • Results showed that the intervention group using the ESP app had a significant increase in social participation frequency compared to the control group, especially in hobbies and cultural activities.
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Background: The integration of the Internet into daily life has potential implications for public health, especially in promoting preventive healthcare measures like annual health checkups. This study explores the association between Internet use and the likelihood of participating in these checkups among older Japanese citizens.

Methods: Participants aged 65 and older were randomly selected from 37 municipalities in Japan, ensuring they required no long-term care.

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  • Individuals with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a heightened likelihood of committing elder abuse, suggesting a potential cycle of violence that extends beyond childhood.
  • A cross-sectional study analyzed data from over 13,000 participants in Japan, revealing that 8.5% reported abusing older adults, with significantly higher odds for those having ACEs.
  • Key mediating factors identified were depression, mental illness, and self-rated health, indicating that these issues may exacerbate the risk of elder abuse among those with a history of ACEs.
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Background: Higher-level functional capacity (HLFC) is crucial for the independent living of older adults. While internet use positively impacts the health of older adults, its effect on HLFC and how this effect varies with educational attainment remains uncertain.

Objective: This longitudinal study aimed to investigate whether internet use could mitigate the risk of HLFC decline and if this benefit extends to older adults with lower levels of education.

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  • There is mixed evidence on how community social capital influences the health and well-being of older adults; this study aims to clarify that relationship using data from a large Japanese cohort.
  • The researchers analyzed three types of social capital—civic participation, social cohesion, and reciprocity—and assessed their impact on various health and well-being outcomes from 2016 to 2019.
  • Findings suggest that higher community-level social capital is linked to better social well-being and physical/cognitive health, including increased social roles and health screenings, as well as improved intellectual activity and reduced functional disability.
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Background: Prior studies have underscored the importance of studying volunteering in the East Asian context. However, no study has conducted a holistic assessment of the relationship between volunteering and the multidimensional health and well-being outcomes of East Asian populations using a strong study design for causal inference. To address this gap, this study examined the associations between volunteer group participation and the subsequent health and well-being of Japanese older adults.

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Importance: There are limited data on whether the vulnerabilities and impacts of social isolation vary across populations.

Objective: To explore the association between social isolation and mortality due to all causes, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), and malignant neoplasms focusing on heterogeneity by sociodemographic factors.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This cohort study used a moderator-wide approach to examine the heterogeneity in the association of social isolation with all-cause, CVD, and malignant neoplasm mortality using baseline data from the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study in 2010 and 2011.

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Despite the acknowledged relationship between the usual (preferred) walking speed (UWS) and health, there is currently no practical method available to reliably and accurately detect slight changes in UWS. This study aimed to explore whether either of the following two phenomena occurs during continuous daily walking in various periods: (a) Similarity between the most frequent cadences in the two periods. (b) The occurrence of the most frequent cadence in at least one of the two periods during the other period, with a frequency close to that of the most frequent cadence.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study examined how different types of Internet use among older adults affect face-to-face communication (FFC) over a three-year period.
  • A total of 8,734 seniors aged 65 and older participated, with their Internet use in 2016 being analyzed to see its impact on FFC in 2019.
  • Results showed that Internet use for communication significantly increased FFC, especially for those who had low levels of FFC initially, suggesting that online interactions can help reduce social isolation among older adults.
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  • The study investigated how participating in community gathering places impacts various health and well-being outcomes for older adults in Japan, focusing on data collected over three years (2013, 2016, and 2019).
  • Results showed that participation was linked to improved physical and cognitive health, enhanced social interactions, and increased prosocial behaviors like volunteering. However, the evidence was less conclusive for mental health and health behaviors.
  • The findings suggest that encouraging older adults to engage in community activities can promote not only disability prevention but also overall well-being through greater social connections.
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Objective: Living a happy life is an essential issue for old adults. However, how eating with others contributes to happiness and whether this association is different by living arrangements or not is unknown. The current study examined the relationship between the frequency of eating with others and happiness among older adults according to their living arrangements using 3-year longitudinal data.

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Synopsis of recent research by authors named "Atsushi Nakagomi"

  • - Atsushi Nakagomi's recent research primarily focuses on the intersection of technology, social participation, and health outcomes in older adults, examining how factors such as internet use and mobile applications can enhance well-being and healthcare accessibility among this demographic.
  • - His studies highlight the significant relationships between social capital, volunteer participation, and health, revealing that engagement in community activities can contribute to improved health outcomes while also addressing social isolation and its varying effects across different populations.
  • - Nakagomi's work also delves into clinical concerns such as preoperative factors affecting anesthesia outcomes and the association between adverse childhood experiences and elder abuse, indicating a broad approach encompassing both public health and psychosocial dimensions in aging research.