著者

Daisuke Yoneoka Takayuki Kawashima Yuta Tanoue Shuhei Nomura Keisuke Ejima Shoi Shi Akifumi Eguchi Toshibumi Taniguchi Haruka Sakamoto Hiroyuki Kunishima Stuart Gilmour Hiroshi Nishiura Hiroaki Miyata

出版者

Japan Epidemiological Association

雑誌

Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.JE20200150, (Released:2020-05-30)

参考文献数

23

被引用文献数

34

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BackgroundThe World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Large-scale monitoring for capturing the current epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in Japan would improve preparation for and prevention of a massive outbreak.MethodsA chatbot-based healthcare system named COOPERA (COvid-19: Operation for Personalized Empowerment to Render smart prevention And care seeking) was developed using the LINE app to evaluate the current Japanese epidemiological situation. LINE users could participate in the system either though a QR code page in the prefecture’s website, or a banner at the top of the LINE app screen. COOPERA asked participants questions regarding personal information, preventive actions, and non-specific symptoms related to COVID-19 and their duration. We calculated daily cross correlation functions between the reported number of infected cases confirmed by PCR and the symptom-positive group captured by COOPERA.ResultsWe analyzed 206,218 participants from three prefectures reported between March 5 and 30, 2020. The mean (standard deviation) age of participants was 44.2 (13.2). No symptoms were reported by 96.93% of participants, but there was a significantly positive correlation between the reported number of COVID-19 cases and self-reported fevers, suggesting that massive monitoring of fever might help to estimate the scale of the COVID-19 epidemic in real time.ConclusionsCOOPERA is the first real-time system being used to monitor trends in COVID-19 in Japan, and provides useful insights to assist political decisions to tackle the epidemic.

著者

Makoto Hasegawa Michio Murakami Shuhei Nomura Yoshitake Takebayashi Masaharu Tsubokura

出版者

Tohoku University Medical Press

雑誌

The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (ISSN:00408727)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.248, no.2, pp.115-123, 2019 (Released:2019-06-26)

参考文献数

35

被引用文献数

8

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After Fukushima disaster in 2011, the health status of the region’s residents deteriorated. We analyzed the health status, care needs, and access to health services among evacuees and non-evacuees using healthcare expenditure (for self-employed and unemployed individuals aged < 75 years) and long-term care expenditure (mainly for individuals aged ≥ 65 years). Fukushima Prefecture was divided into four areas according to their evacuation status: non-EOAs (municipalities that did not include evacuation order areas (EOAs)); EOAs/non-EOAs (municipalities that included both EOAs and non-EOAs); short-term EOAs (municipalities where the EOA designation was lifted in most areas by fiscal year (FY) 2011); and long-term EOAs (municipalities where most EOA designations remained in place until the end of FY 2015). Increases in expenditure on healthcare and long-term care per capita in short-term and long-term EOAs were greater in FY 2015 than the average values in FYs 2008-2010. The increases in expenditure were higher in short-term and long-term EOAs than those in non-EOAs and EOAs/non-EOAs. The increases in dental health expenditure were attributed to enhanced accessibility to dental health facilities. Furthermore, the evacuations contributed to increases in healthcare and long-term care expenditure, independent of aging and improved accessibly to health facilities. Possible explanations for these increases include the poor health status of the evacuees following the evacuations, reduced availability of informal care provided by family members and neighbors, and reduced patient copayments. The findings highlight the necessity of health promotion among evacuees.

著者

Shuhei Nomura Marisa Nishio Sarah Krull Abe Akifumi Eguchi Manami Inoue Motoi Suzuki Masahiro Hashizume

出版者

Japan Epidemiological Association

雑誌

Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.JE20230235, (Released:2023-10-21)

参考文献数

23

被引用文献数

1

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IntroductionThe Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted end-of-life decisions for cancer patients in Japan, with disparities existing between preferred and actual care settings. Our study investigates the potential shifts in cancer death locations during the pandemic and if there were excess cancer deaths.MethodsUtilizing national mortality data from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare from January 2012 to February 2023, we identified cancer deaths using ICD-10 codes. We assessed death locations, including medical institutions, nursing facilities, and homes. The Farrington algorithm was employed to estimate expected death counts, and the differences between observed and expected counts were denoted as excess deaths.ResultsFrom January 2018 to February 2023, there was consistently increase in the weekly observed cancer deaths. The presence of a definitive excess during the pandemic period remains uncertain. The percentage of deaths in medical institutions declined from 83.3% to 70.1% , while home deaths increased from 12.1% to 22.9%. Between April 2020 and February 2023, deaths in medical institutions frequently fell below the 95% prediction lower limit. Home deaths consistently exceeded the 95% prediction upper limit, with significant excess deaths reported annually.ConclusionOur study found a shift in cancer death locations from medical institutions to homes in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study did not confirm an overall increase in cancer deaths during this period. As with global trends, the profound shift from hospitals to homes in Japan calls for a comprehensive exploration to grasp the pandemic's multifaceted impact on end-of-life cancer care decisions.

著者

Cyrus Ghaznavi Daisuke Yoneoka Yuta Tanoue Stuart Gilmour Takayuki Kawashima Akifumi Eguchi Yumi Kawamura Hiroaki Miyata Shuhei Nomura

出版者

Japan Epidemiological Association

雑誌

Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.JE20220064, (Released:2022-07-02)

参考文献数

32

被引用文献数

10

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BackgroundIncreases in human mobility have been linked to rises in COVID-19 transmission. The pandemic era in Japan has been characterized by changes in inter-prefectural mobility across state of emergency declarations (SOE) and travel campaigns, but they have yet to be characterized.MethodsUsing Yahoo Japan mobility data extracted from the smartphones of more than 10 million Japanese residents, we calculated the monthly number of inter-prefectural travel instances, stratified by residential prefecture and destination prefecture. We then used this adjacency matrix to calculate two network connectedness metrics, closeness centrality and effective distance, that reliably predict disease transmission.ResultsInter-prefectural mobility and network connectedness decreased most considerably during the first SOE, but this decrease dampened with each successive SOE. Mobility and network connectedness increased during the Go To Travel campaign. Travel volume between distant prefectures decreased more than travel between prefectures with geographic proximity. Closeness centrality was found to be negatively correlated with the rate of COVID-19 infection across prefectures, with the strength of this association increasing in tandem with the infection rate. Changes in effective distance were more visible among geographically isolated prefectures (Hokkaido and Okinawa) than among metropolitan, central prefectures (Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka, and Fukuoka).ConclusionsThe magnitude of reductions in human mobility decreased with each subsequent state of emergency, consistent with pandemic fatigue. The association between network connectedness and rates of COVID-19 infection remained visible throughout the entirety of the pandemic period, suggesting that inter-prefectural mobility may have contributed to disease spread.

著者

Daisuke Yoneoka Takayuki Kawashima Yuta Tanoue Shuhei Nomura Keisuke Ejima Shoi Shi Akifumi Eguchi Toshibumi Taniguchi Haruka Sakamoto Hiroyuki Kunishima Stuart Gilmour Hiroshi Nishiura Hiroaki Miyata

出版者

Japan Epidemiological Association

雑誌

Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.30, no.8, pp.362-370, 2020-08-05 (Released:2020-08-05)

参考文献数

23

被引用文献数

34

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Background: The World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) to be a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Large-scale monitoring for capturing the current epidemiological situation of COVID-19 in Japan would improve preparation for and prevention of a massive outbreak.Methods: A chatbot-based healthcare system named COOPERA (COvid-19: Operation for Personalized Empowerment to Render smart prevention And care seeking) was developed using the LINE app to evaluate the current Japanese epidemiological situation. LINE users could participate in the system either though a QR code page in the prefectures’ websites or a banner at the top of the LINE app screen. COOPERA asked participants questions regarding personal information, preventive actions, and non-specific symptoms related to COVID-19 and their duration. We calculated daily cross correlation functions between the reported number of infected cases confirmed using polymerase chain reaction and the symptom-positive group captured by COOPERA.Results: We analyzed 206,218 participants from three prefectures reported between March 5 and 30, 2020. The mean age of participants was 44.2 (standard deviation, 13.2) years. No symptoms were reported by 96.93% of participants, but there was a significantly positive correlation between the reported number of COVID-19 cases and self-reported fevers, suggesting that massive monitoring of fever might help to estimate the scale of the COVID-19 epidemic in real time.Conclusions: COOPERA is the first real-time system being used to monitor trends in COVID-19 in Japan and provides useful insights to assist political decisions to tackle the epidemic.

著者

Cyrus Ghaznavi Daisuke Yoneoka Yuta Tanoue Stuart Gilmour Takayuki Kawashima Akifumi Eguchi Yumi Kawamura Hiroaki Miyata Shuhei Nomura

出版者

Japan Epidemiological Association

雑誌

Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.32, no.11, pp.510-518, 2022-11-05 (Released:2022-11-05)

参考文献数

32

被引用文献数

2 10

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Background: Increases in human mobility have been linked to rises in novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission. The pandemic era in Japan has been characterized by changes in inter-prefectural mobility across state of emergency (SOE) declarations and travel campaigns, but they have yet to be characterized.Methods: Using Yahoo Japan mobility data extracted from the smartphones of more than 10 million Japanese residents, we calculated the monthly number of inter-prefectural travel instances, stratified by residential prefecture and destination prefecture. We then used this adjacency matrix to calculate two network connectedness metrics, closeness centrality and effective distance, that reliably predict disease transmission.Results: Inter-prefectural mobility and network connectedness decreased most considerably during the first SOE, but this decrease dampened with each successive SOE. Mobility and network connectedness increased during the Go To Travel campaign. Travel volume between distant prefectures decreased more than travel between prefectures with geographic proximity. Closeness centrality was found to be negatively correlated with the rate of COVID-19 infection across prefectures, with the strength of this association increasing in tandem with the infection rate. Changes in effective distance were more visible among geographically isolated prefectures (Hokkaido and Okinawa) than among metropolitan, central prefectures (Tokyo, Aichi, Osaka, and Fukuoka).Conclusion: The magnitude of reductions in human mobility decreased with each subsequent state of emergency, consistent with pandemic fatigue. The association between network connectedness and rates of COVID-19 infection remained visible throughout the entirety of the pandemic period, suggesting that inter-prefectural mobility may have contributed to disease spread.

著者

Yosuke Inoue Shuhei Nomura Chihiro Nishiura Ai Hori Kenya Yamamoto Tohru Nakagawa Toru Honda Shuichiro Yamamoto Masafumi Eguchi Takeshi Kochi Toshiaki Miyamoto Hiroko Okazaki Teppei Imai Akiko Nishihara Takayuki Ogasawara Naoko Sasaki Akihiko Uehara Makoto Yamamoto Makiko Shimizu Maki Konishi Isamu Kabe Tetsuya Mizoue Seitaro Dohi

出版者

Japan Epidemiological Association

雑誌

Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.JE20190332, (Released:2020-07-25)

参考文献数

31

被引用文献数

6

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Background: While much effort has focused on quantifying disease burden in occupational health, no study has simultaneously assessed disease burden in terms of mortality and morbidity. We aimed to propose a new comprehensive method of quantifying the disease burden in the workplace.Method: The data were obtained from the Japan Epidemiology Collaboration on Occupational Health (J-ECOH) Study, a large-scale prospective study of approximately 80,000 workers. We defined disease burden in the workplace as the number of working years lost among the working population during a 6-year period (April 2012 to March 2018). We calculated the disease burden according to consequences of health problems (i.e., mortality, sickness absence [SA], and ill-health retirement) and disease category. We also calculated the age-group- (20–39 and 40–59 years old) and sex-specific disease burden.Results: The largest contributors to disease burden in the workplace were mental and behavioural disorders (47.0 person-years lost per 10,000 person-years of working years, i.e., per myriad [proportion]), followed by neoplasms (10.8 per myriad) and diseases of the circulatory system (7.1 per myriad). While mental and behavioural disorders made a greater contribution to SA and ill-health retirement compared to mortality, the latter two disorders were the largest contributors to the disease burden in the workplace due to mortality. The number of working years lost was greater among younger vs. older female participants, whereas the opposite trend was observed in males.Conclusions: Our approach is in contrast to those in previous studies that focused exclusively on mortality or morbidity.