| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥2,340,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥540,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥1,700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
First, we developed a new children's obesity index based on a curvilinear relationship between mean body mass index and mean height. We named it the standard BMI method. Next, we investigated the trend of obesity in Iwate Prefecture using the new index. As a result, the proportion of obesity increased as their grade in school advanced. Moreover, the proportion of obesity in urban areas was lower than that of mountainous areas or that of coastal areas, although it was not significant statistically. As for advantages of using the standard BMI method, school nurses answered that it was possible to use the method regardless of the grade, to evaluate obesity stably, and to shift to adult BMI smoothly. On the other hand, as some disadvantages of it, they answered that they were not familiar with the new method, they felt uneasiness about using the method because it was not guaranteed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and they felt troublesome using personal computers. The obesity index recommended by MEXT has a weak point that the obesity index changes when children move up to the next grade even if their body height and body weight are same. At this point, the standard BMI method is superior to the MEXT method. We also surveyed the use of the standard BMI method in Wakayama City. Two thirds of school nurses in Wakayama City have used the standard BMI method, and 80 percent of users answered that the method was convenient to use. The reason why they used the method was that it was simple and not time-consuming. They can get the results by simply inputting body height and body weight. The main reason why they did not use the method was that they had used other methods such as Rohrer Index, the Hibi's method, and a software package for school nurses.
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