世論 What Japan Thinks

Let’s look again at one of the more popular themes for surveys, health awareness and special metabo examinations. This time it is Nippon Research Council looking at the topic.

Demographics

Between the 4th and 16th of June 2008 1,200 citizens between 15 and 79 years of age were randomly selected from all over the country, weighted based on data from the 2005 national census. The questionnaires were taken by a combination of face-to-face interviews and self-completed questionnaires. There is no information about how refusals to take part or other failures to collect data were dealt with. 50.4% of the sample were female, 6.2% in their teens, 15.1% in their twenties, 17.9% in their thirties, 15.3% in their forties, 18.3% in their fifties, 13.2% in their sixties, and 11.3% in their seventies.

Following on from recent western press coverage on the topic, I was wondering if metabo, the Japanese abbreviation for the English metabolic syndrome might get re-imported back into English. I can think only of anime as a precedent, but in English anime usually only refers to Japanese animation, not all kinds.

Perhaps related, one in four British fatties refuse to admit it.

Research results

Q1: On a day-to-day basis, do you take care of your health? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Extreme care	21.0%	19.0%	23.0%
Some care	55.8%	54.6%	57.0%
Not much care	19.7%	21.5%	17.9%
No care at all	3.3%	4.7%	1.8%
No answer	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%

Q2: What aspects of your own health do you pay attention to? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Body fat	34.0%	33.1%	34.9%
Cholestoral	31.5%	28.2%	34.7%
Blood pressure	30.2%	31.4%	28.9%
Neutral fats	27.3%	28.2%	26.4%
Stomach state	22.1%	21.0%	23.1%
Dental decay, caries	19.6%	17.5%	21.7%
Blood sugar	16.8%	18.8%	14.7%
Headache	14.3%	8.7%	19.8%
Liver function	12.8%	18.3%	7.3%
Bone density	12.2%	4.4%	19.8%
Calcium deficiency	10.6%	4.7%	16.4%
None of these	10.6%	4.7%	16.4%

Q3: What do you normally do for the sake of your health? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Get enough sleep	39.1%	33.8%	44.3%
Do exercise	36.8%	34.6%	38.8%
Don’t build up stress	31.8%	26.9%	36.7%
Don’t overdo things	31.3%	23.5%	28.8%
Limit salt intake	30.7%	24.4%	36.9%
Limit fat intake	27.6%	21.7%	33.4%
Limit sugar intake	22.9%	19.3%	26.1%
Visit doctor regularly	17.9%	15.8%	20.0%
Take supplements	14.2%	9.7%	18.5%
Take medicines	13.6%	12.9%	14.2%
Limit alcohol consumption	7.9%	11.3%	4.6%
Limit smoking	4.7%	6.7%	2.6%
Nothing in particular	15.6%	20.3%	10.9%

Q4: How is your current health situation? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Healthy	25.5%	27.1%	24.0%
Perhaps healthy	55.3%	54.1%	56.5%
Perhaps unhealthy	12.8%	11.8%	13.9%
Unhealthy	3.2%	3.4%	3.0%
Don’t know, no answer	3.1%	3.7%	2.7%

Q5: What are you currently doing for you health, and what do you not do but are interested in doing for your health? (Sample size=1,200, multiple answer)

	Currently	Interested
Sauna, stone sauna	5.4%	19.3%
WiiFit	2.4%	15.8%
Hot yoga	1.1%	13.7%
Pelvic exercise	1.3%	12.8%
Horse-riding exercise machine	1.3%	7.6%
Detox diet	0.3%	6.7%
Pilates	0.9%	6.0%
Boxercise	0.5%	5.5%
Slow food	1.5%	4.9%
“Beauty waist” (bikoshi) exercise	0.7%	4.6%
Exercise DVD	0.8%	2.6%
Walking	6.8%	0.4%
Aerobics, stretching	1.8%	0.1%
Swimming	1.1%	0.2%

Q6: How much do you know about metabolic syndrome? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Know the details	45.8%	42.5%	48.9%
Just know the outline	50.5%	53.1%	47.9%
Don’t know anything	3.6%	4.2%	3.0%
No answer	0.2%	0.2%	0.2%

Q7: Did you know that from April 2008 special health checks and special health guidance for early detection, prevention and cure of metabolic syndrome have been introduced? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Know the details	29.9%	27.4%	32.4%
Just know the outline	43.6%	42.9%	44.3%
Don’t know anything	26.3%	29.6%	23.0%
No answer	0.3%	0.2%	0.3%

The respondents then had the diagnosis criteria for metabolic syndrome shown to them, and answered this self-test of their knowledge.

Q8: Did you know the standard for diagnosis of metabolic syndrome? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Knew a lot	23.2%	21.5%	24.8%
Knew a little	50.8%	48.9%	52.7%
Knew almost nothing	16.3%	19.0%	13.7%
Knew nothing at all	9.6%	10.6%	8.6%
No answer	0.1%	0.0%	0.2%

Q9: How concerned are you about metabolic syndrome? (Sample size=1,200)

	All	Male N=595	Female N=605
Extremely concerned	14.5%	13.1%	15.9%
Quite concerned	43.6%	41.8%	45.3%
Can’t say either way	10.7%	9.9%	11.4%
Not very concerned	19.5%	22.4%	16.7%
Not concerned at all	11.5%	12.4%	10.6%
No answer	0.3%	0.3%	0.2%