Objectives: Impaired mental health status tends to be associated with poor academic performance, but few prospective studies have examined the association between mental health and academic performance among undergraduates while considering the interacting roles of multiple lifestyle behaviors.Participants and Methods: A total of 1823 Japanese undergraduate students (67% men) were followed up for 4 years. Their mental health status was measured by the six‐item Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6). We defined poor academic performance as a grade point average (GPA) <2.0. Cox proportional hazards models were used to determine the relationship between the students' mental health status and the incident risk of poor academic performance.Results: Our analyses revealed that impaired mental health status in the first semester of university study significantly predicted an increased incident risk of poor academic performance during the overall undergraduate period. This association remained significant when the health lifestyle behaviors were adjusted, and the hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) for poor academic performance was 1.62 (1.18–2.23). This significant association disappeared in the low‐lifestyle‐behavior‐risk group.Conclusion: Impaired mental health status in the first semester significantly predicts an increased incident risk of poor academic performance during the undergraduate period.

To examine the association between physical frailty and risk of needing long-term care, and compare the predictive value and clinical usefulness of a simple frailty scale (FRAIL) with that of the original Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) criteria.

Oral function (OF) decline in older people is associated with nutritional deficiencies, which increases frailty risk and the need for nursing care. We investigated whether the delivery of an oral function improvement program on a tablet device was as effective as delivery through a paper-based program. We also investigated the association between tongue pressure (TP) improvement and nutritional status at the baseline. The participants involved in the study were 26 community-dwelling older people with low TP, <30 kPa, aged ≥65 years, who were enrolled in a randomized controlled trial for a month in Itoshima City, Fukuoka, Japan. Oral and physical functions and body composition were measured at the baseline and at follow-up. Two-way analysis of variance revealed that body mass index (p = 0.004) increased, and maximum masticatory performance (p = 0.010), maximum TP (p = 0.035), and oral diadochokinesis /pa/ and /ka/ (p = 0.009 and 0.017, respectively) improved in a month. Participants with higher TP improvement showed an increased intake of animal proteins at the baseline: fish (p = 0.022), meat (p = 0.029), and egg (p = 0.009). OF exercises for improving TP were associated with higher animal protein intake at the baseline. This study has been registered with the UMIN Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN 000050292).

Older adults’ mental health and physical frailty have been a frequent research focus, but few studies have investigated the relationship between them

Background: Physical activity is known to help prevent physical frailty, but it is not clear which physical activities practiced alone or in combination are most closely associated with a lower risk of physical frailty. We investigated differences in the associations of exercise habit, social participation, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) with physical frailty and its components among community-dwelling older Japanese adults. Subjects and methods: A total of 831 older adults participated in this cross-sectional study. Physical frailty was defined based on the Fried et al. criteria. Exercise habit was defined as exercising ≥ 30 min per day for ≥ 2 days per week for ≥ 1 year. Social participation was defined as participating in community activities ≥ 1/week. MVPA was defined as ≥ 300 min/week of moderate physical activity (MPA) or 150 min/week of vigorous physical activity (VPA). We classified the participants into eight groups according to the presence/absence of these activities, and we performed a logistic regression analysis to investigate the association between different activities, both alone and in combination, and physical frailty. Results: The prevalence of physical pre-frailty + frailty was 74.8% in the None group, 65.0% in the Exercise habit group, 76.3% in the Social participation group, 56.5% in the MVPA group, 58.7% in the Exercise habit + Social participation group, 44.0% in the Exercise habit + MVPA group, 41.3% in the Social participation + MVPA group, and 38.0% in the All group. Compared to the None group, the groups in which participants were engaged in any combination of two or more types of activity, as well as the MVPA-alone group had significantly lower risks of physical pre-frailty + frailty. Conclusion: Community-dwelling older Japanese adults who engaged in MVPA or any combination of two or more types of physical activity as defined herein had lower risks of physical pre-frailty and frailty.