• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Health

COVID-19’s impact on socioeconomic inequality in health behaviors among Japanese adolescents

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
June 23, 2023
in Health
Reading Time: 4 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Key Findings

Slope and Relative Inequality Indices for Each Health Behavior Based on Income Level Indicators by Survey Year (author modified from the paper's Appendix)

Credit: KYAN Akira and TAKAKURA Minoru

Key Findings

  • This study is the first worldwide to investigate time trend in socioeconomic inequality in various health behaviors among adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The study found widening socioeconomic inequality among Japanese adolescents in achieving recommended physical activity levels before and during the pandemic, alongside narrowing inequality in breakfast intake. Specifically, despite no observed differences in physical activity by income in 2019, by 2021, adolescents from families with lower equivalent household incomes were less likely to engage in physical activity.
  • Research is needed to continue monitoring the impact these phenomena will have on health over the medium to long term.

Research Background

The research team has previously identified socioeconomic inequality in physical activity among Japanese adults during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kyan & Takakura, Public Health, 2022). This study focused on the issue of socioeconomic disparities in adolescent health behavior. Health inequality in Japan has been moderate compared to Western countries, but the situation has worsened recently, pushing the government to take action since 2013. The disparities in health behaviors observed in Western countries are based on the economic status of households and neighborhoods, but the situation in Japan is not well understood because such inequality has only recently begun to attract attention in Japan.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, adolescent health behaviors deteriorated worldwide. National studies in Japan have also shown worsening health behaviors, including a marked decrease in physical activity and an increase in screen time. Researchers have also pointed out the possibility that the pandemic may exacerbate health disparities by increasing household income inequality.

This study aimed to identify trends in socioeconomic disparities in the health behaviors of Japanese adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in basic health behaviors, including physical activity, screen time, breakfast intake, and bowel movement frequency. The hope is that understanding these disparities will lead to developing intervention strategies and policies to provide youth with needed support.

Study Summary

The study used data from the 2019 and 2021 National Sports-Life Survey of Children and Young People conducted by the Sasakawa Sports Foundation. The survey focuses on children and youth’s after-school and weekend exercise and sports participation, sports environments, and health behaviors such as sleep duration, media usage time, and bowel movement frequency. Data were collected from June to July each survey year using self-administered questionnaires from adolescents and their parents/guardians. Survey participants were selected using a two-staged stratified random sampling method from 225 sites proportionally distributed from the strata by district and city size based on the population of the Basic Resident Registers. The survey included 3,000 individuals aged 4–21.

The study’s analysis included adolescents aged 12–18 and excluded 18-year-olds who did not attend high school. The number of participants who met the inclusion criteria for age and school enrollment was 1,076 for 2019 and 1,025 for 2021. After excluding individuals with missing variables, the research team analyzed data for 766 and 725 individuals in 2019 and 2021.

The research team used equivalent household income as a measure of socioeconomic status. In accordance with accepted health guidelines, favorable health behaviors were defined as daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) of at least 60 minutes, screen time (ST) of less than 2 hours, sleep of 8 to 10 hours, daily breakfast intake, and bowel movement frequency of at least once in every 3 days.

This study is unique in that it used slope and relative indices of inequality to account for differences in the percentage of the population in each category of socioeconomic factor (in this study, income).

The analysis found widening socioeconomic inequality among Japanese adolescents in achieving recommended physical activity levels before and during the pandemic, alongside narrowing inequality in breakfast intake. Specifically, despite no observed differences in physical activity by income in 2019, by 2021, adolescents from families with lower equivalent household incomes were less likely to engage in physical activity. There was a trend toward a narrowing gap for screen time, but it was not statistically significant. No socioeconomic disparities were observed for sleep duration and defecation frequency in both 2019 and 2021.

Future Developments

Continued monitoring is needed to determine whether measures to promote physical activity before the COVID-19 pandemic also contributed to the reduction of widening socioeconomic disparities. The fact that this study revealed differences in physical activity among adolescents depending on their socioeconomic status underpins the importance of continued health (and health behavior) monitoring. This study promises to serve as a reference for considering policy directions.

Glossary

Equivalent household income: Household income adjusted to represent the standard of living of the household members. It is obtained by dividing household income by the square root of the number of household members.



Journal

Journal of Physical Activity and Health

DOI

10.1123/jpah.2022-0489

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Socioeconomic Inequality of Health Behavior Among Japanese Adolescents: A 2-Year Repeated Cross-Sectional Survey

Article Publication Date

22-Jun-2023

Share12Tweet8Share2ShareShareShare2

Related Posts

AAV Boosts STC-1, Eases Neuroinflammation, Saves Vision

September 2, 2025

Evaluating Mindfulness Intervention for Self-Injury Recovery

September 2, 2025

New Isoquinoline Derivatives Show Promise as Antifungal Agents

September 2, 2025

Protein Lipoylation: Key to Cancer Metabolic Therapy

September 2, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Breakthrough in Computer Hardware Advances Solves Complex Optimization Challenges

    154 shares
    Share 62 Tweet 39
  • Molecules in Focus: Capturing the Timeless Dance of Particles

    143 shares
    Share 57 Tweet 36
  • New Drug Formulation Transforms Intravenous Treatments into Rapid Injections

    117 shares
    Share 47 Tweet 29
  • Do people and monkeys see colors the same way?

    112 shares
    Share 45 Tweet 28
>

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

AAV Boosts STC-1, Eases Neuroinflammation, Saves Vision

MASL Alters OSCC Cells: Growth, Motility, Morphology Changes

Herbal Extracts Enhance Antibiotic Effects on Resistant Pathogens

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.