ΰµåÂç³Ø¤ØUniversity of the Ryukyus


Minoru Takakura, Ph.D.

Professor
Epidemiology and Health Promotion, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine
University of the Ryukyus
Phone: +81-98-895-1255
E-mail: minoru(@)med.u-ryukyu.ac.jp
Office: Health Sciences Building 611

What's New! (in Japanese)

Graduate School of Health Sciences (Doctoral and Master's programs) of the University of the Ryukyus consists of two sections: divisions of the Human Health Promotion, and Island and Global Health Science for human health and environmental problems.My department is School Health (Master's program) and Health Promotion & Development (Doctoral program) in the division of the Human Health Promotion. I am doing research on social epidemiology, school health, public health, and health behavior and health promotion. Our school accepts students from Asian countries and Pacific Island countries as well as from all over the world.

Research Activity

¡¦    Social determinants of health among young people (Kaken­µ¡¦­¶) (OkiSH)
We focus on social relations, such as social capital, collective efficacy, and school connectedness, as important social determinants of health and well-being among young people. Social capital often refers to features of social organization such as trust, norms, and networks, which can improve social efficiency by facilitating coordinated actions. It has been pointed out that Okinawa has rich social capital due to the unique social context. For young people, not only the neighborhoods, but also schools are important communities to influence on shaping their character, academic performance, and health indicators. We examined the associations between social capital both in school and in the neighborhood contexts and health among Japanese youth. We suggest that social capital had a significant contextual effect on good health and the school-level associations of social capital with youth health may have the greater impact than the neighborhood-level associations.



¡¦    Time trends in health-risk behaviors and its determinants among adolescents (OkiSH)
In recent decades, time trends in smoking prevalence among young people have shown a steady decline at global level (World Health Organization 2019). It is not clear whether the prevalence of various health-risk behaviors shows the same downward trends over time. We conducted a repeated cross-sectional study, using data of prefecture-wide representative surveys of public high schools in Okinawa, from 2002 to 2016. The surveys were designed to obtain comprehensive data on health, sociodemographic, and psychosocial information and to explore those trends among high school students across the prefecture. We found that many health-risk behaviors among high school students improved over time, but this progress was not even across subgroups.



¡¦    Longitudinal study on physical activities, physical fitness, and academic achievement among youth (Kaken­·)
In recent years, there has been considerable discussions about the influence of physical activity and aerobic fitness not only on physical and mental health, but also on brain function and academic achievement among children and adolescents. Although previous studies showed that increased aerobic fitness benefits children¡Çs brain function, its causal relationship remains debatable because of the lack of prospective studies. We examined the impact of physical activity and aerobic fitness on academic achievement of junior high school students over a three-year period. We found a significant positive effect of aerobic fitness on academic achievement after adjusting for covariates in boys. In addition, it is not clear whether aerobic fitness mediates the relationship between physical activity and brain function and academic achievement among children. We examined the mediating role of aerobic fitness on the effects of physical activity on academic achievement of Japanese children, considering potential confounders. The hypothesis that aerobic fitness might mediate the relationship between physical activity and academic achievement was supported for boys, not for girls.



¡¦    Associations between psychosocial school environment and health among youth (Kaken­¸¡¦­¹

¡¦    Intervention on smoking, alcohol use, and other drug use prevention among children and adolescents

¡¦    Mental health & well-being education for children and adolescents
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