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

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
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

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

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
Bibha Dhungel Tsuguhiko Kato Yuko Kachi Manami Ochi Stuart Gilmour Kenji Takehara
出版者
Japan Epidemiological Association
雑誌
Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.33, no.6, pp.294-302, 2023-06-05 (Released:2023-06-05)
参考文献数
59
被引用文献数
6

Background: In Japan, ten percent of single-parent households are led by fathers. Taking care of children as a single father is very stressful and could put a strain on their health. It is very important to prevent and identify psychological distress among fathers for both their own health and to avoid negative impacts on children. This study aims to determine the prevalence of and factors associated with psychological distress among single fathers and understand how it is different from partnered fathers.Methods: We used data from the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2016. Psychological distress, assessed using the K6 scale, was analyzed among 868 single and 43,880 partnered fathers. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the risk factors for psychological distress, such as employment type, sleep hours, and smoking and drinking habits.Results: Single fathers had a higher proportion (8.5%) of psychological distress compared to partnered fathers (5.0%). A larger percentage of single fathers had a lower educational level and were more likely to be non-regular workers, self-employed, or unemployed than partnered fathers. Among single fathers, the crude and adjusted odds ratio for employment type and sleep hours were significantly associated with psychological distress.Conclusion: As single parents who are self-employed or directors are likely to have significantly reduced psychological distress than those with regular jobs, measures are needed to improve the work-family balance for non-self-employed fathers. There is a need to provide greater financial assistance and other social welfare support to single parents to ensure their and their children’s good health.
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

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
Bibha DHUNGEL Kato TSUGUHIKO Yuko KACHI Manami OCHI Stuart GILMOUR Kenji TAKEHARA
出版者
Japan Epidemiological Association
雑誌
Journal of Epidemiology (ISSN:09175040)
巻号頁・発行日
pp.JE20210273, (Released:2021-10-23)
参考文献数
59
被引用文献数
6

Background: In Japan, ten percent of single-parent households are led by fathers. Taking care of children as a single father is very stressful and could put a strain on their health. It is very important to prevent and identify psychological distress among fathers for both their own health and to avoid negative impacts on children. This study aims to determine the prevalence of, and factors associated with psychological distress among single fathers and understand how it is different from partnered fathers.Methods: We used data from the Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2016. Psychological distress, assessed using the K6 scale, was analysed among 868 single and 43,880 partnered fathers. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess the risk factors for psychological distress such as employment type, sleep hours, smoking and drinking habits.Results: Single fathers had a higher proportion (8.5%) of psychological distress compared to partnered fathers (5.0%). A large percentage of single fathers had a lower educational level and were non-regular workers, self-employed or unemployed, compared to partnered fathers. Among single fathers, the crude and adjusted odds ratio for employment type and sleep hours were significantly associated with psychological distress.Conclusion: As single parents who are self-employed or directors are likely to have significantly reduced psychological distress than those with regular jobs, measures are needed to improve the work-family balance for non-self-employed fathers. There is a need to provide assistance to improve the quality and amount of sleep of single fathers to ensure their and their children’s good health.