[pp.55-60]
Hideo YAMAZAKI, Takae MORITA, Soichi SAKABE and Jian-Guo ZHANG (Yamaguchi University / Soka University)
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to clarify multidimensional structure of the semi-health status, which indicated transitional health condition, among school-aged children in Japan, and to examine the relationship between environmental factors and the semi-health status. The subjects were selected by multi-stage sampling method. After three steps regarding the sampling procedure, ten primary schools were randomly selected from the municipalities. Then, the self-report questionnaire, which consisted of 54 items, was administered to 2,014 children in primary schools in 2003. Then the principal component analysis was applied to the valid data in order to extract indices that represented the characteristics of multidimensional structure on the semi-health status. As the result, four principal components, which were interpreted as the synthetic component, physical-mental component, slight-severe symptoms component, and motor system-medical component on the semi-health status, were extracted. It was pointed out that the semi-health status among children was composed of four-dimensional scaling. The quantification method of the second type was applied in order to examine the effect of environmental factors on the semi-health status. It was suggested that the most important factor, which contributed to the discrimination of semi-health and good health conditions, was the vigorous physical activity.
Key Word:
environmental factors, semi-health status, children, multidimensional structure