| Research Abstract |
The objective of Japan Nurses' Health Study (JNHS) is to reveal women's health, lifestyle, and use of estrogen drugs in Japan. Gunma pilot study was conducted in 1748 female nurses in Gunma prefecture, and 931 of the women agreed to participate to the coming follow-up surveys as a member of the prospective cohort study. The recruitment of JNHS was extended to every prefecture of Japan. By March 2006, a total of 48,486 female nurses responded to the baseline survey from all over Japan. The 16,712 women out of them gave us written consent of 10 years follow-up observation.
In baseline survey, 17.2% of the women were smokers and 32.0% drink alcohol beverages regularly. Body mass index, waist hip ratio, blood pressure, and serum cholesterol were elevated in the older age class. The heavy alcohol consumption (>60g/day) was associated with long working hours (overtime work > 80hrs a month)
In women aged 45 to 64 years old, the percentages of natural menopause, artificial menopause, and pre-menopause were 28.3, 11.5%, and 52.9%. The average of menopause age was 49.9 years old in natural menopause women. The serum cholesterol level was higher in postmenopausal women than that in pre-menopause women. The prevalence of ever-users of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was 7.5% in all women aged 45 to 64 years, or 12.9% in postmenopausal women. The 17.6%, 10.8%, 9.6%, 9.3% of postmenopausal women were ever users of HRT in the age group of 45-49, 50-54, 55-59, 60-64 years old, respectively. The 9.9%, 4.8%, 3.8%, 2.5% of postmenopausal women were currently using HRT in each age group, respectively. The follow-up surveys of Japan Nurses' Health Study will clarify the trend that more women of younger age class use HRT.
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