University
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
Profile
Class
-
Epidemiology
-
School Health
-
Health Promotion and Education
-
Health and Sports Sciences
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