Naoki Kondo

PubMed, the ISI Web of Science, and the National Bureau for Economic Research database. Review methods Peer reviewed papers with multilevel data. Results The meta-analysis included 59 509 857 subjects in nine cohort studies and 1 280 211 subjects in 19 cross sectional studies. The overall cohort relative risk and cross sectional odds ratio (95% confidence intervals) per 0.05 unit increase in Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, was 1.08 (1.06 to 1.10) and 1.04 (1.02 to 1.06), respec

Self-rated health improved in absolute terms for all occupational groups even after the economic recession. However, the relative disparity increased between the top and middle occupational groups in men.

We examined whether eating alone is associated with dietary behaviors and body weight status, and assessed the modifying effects of cohabitation status in older Japanese people. Data from the 2010 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, with a self-reported questionnaire for 38,690 men and 43,674 women aged ≥65 years, were used. Eating status was classified as eating with others, sometimes eating alone, or exclusively eating alone. We calculated adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) of unhealthy diet

Growing socioeconomic disparity is a global concern, as it could affect population health. The author and colleagues have investigated the health impacts of socioeconomic disparities as well as the pathways that underlie those disparities. Our meta-analysis found that a large population has risks of mortality and poor self-rated health that are attributable to income inequality. The study results also suggested the existence of threshold effects (ie, a threshold of income inequality over which t

Income inequality at the country level may have stronger adverse contextual effects on health than inequality in smaller areas, perhaps by best reflecting social stratification in a society. Furthermore, we found that threshold, period and lag effects were independent of area unit for evaluating inequality, which may have important policy implications.

Relative deprivation may be a mechanism underlying the link between income inequality and disability in older age, at least among men. Lifestyle factors in part explain the association between relative deprivation and incident disability.

The impact of social participation on older adults' health may differ by individual socioeconomic status (SES). Consequently, we examined SES effect modification on the associations between types of social activity participation and incident functional disability. Cohort data from the 2003 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) was utilized. This included individuals who were aged 65 or older and functionally independent at baseline. Analysis was carried out on 12,991 respondents after ac

Integrated care for long-term care prevention should consider interventions targeting the whole community in addition to high-risk individuals.

Although still controversial, it has been suggested that overall mortality in industrialised countries tends to rise during economic expansions and fall in recessions, attributed to the boost in traffic and industrial activity and environmental pollution during economic upturns.1 However, as Tapir Granados has demonstrated using Japanese mortality statistics, suicide increases during economic crises perhaps because suicide is usually a consequence of psychological illnesses like depression direc

The results partially support our hypothesised mechanism: relative deprivation increases health risks via psychosocial stress among men.