Prevention of perinatal depression beginning from the antenatal period is essential.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of recently developed internet-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) for preventing the onset of a major depressive episode (MDE) in the third trimester and at 3 months postpartum.

This is a two-arm, parallel-group, general-information controlled, randomized controlled trial. Participants were 5,017 pregnant women at 16–20 weeks’ gestation without MDE at baseline. They were randomly assigned to an iCBT (intervention; n = 2,509) or general-information (control; n = 2,508) group, stratified by psychological distress at baseline. The primary outcomes were the numbers of new MDE onsets, measured using the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview 3.0, at 32 weeks’ gestation and at 3 months postpartum.

New MDE onset was reported by 59 participants (2.35%) in the intervention group and 73 (2.91%) in the control group during follow-up. Compared with the control group, the hazard ratio (HR) of MDE in the intervention group was 0.85 (95% CI 0.61–1.20). Among participants who scored between 5 and 8 on K6 at baseline, 10 (1.37%) in the intervention group reported new onset of MDE, compared with 28 (3.81%) in the control group, and the HR of MDE was 0.38 (95%CI 0.19–0.79).

No intervention effect was found for iCBT in preventing new onset of perinatal MDE. iCBT might prevent perinatal depression only among pregnant women with subthreshold depressive symptoms.

None Declared

Health workforce development is essential for achieving the goals of an effective health system, as well as establishing national Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health EDRM).

The objective of this Delphi consensus study was to identify strategic recommendations for strengthening the workforce for Health EDRM in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) and high-income countries (HIC).

A total of 31 international experts were asked to rate the level of importance (one being strongly unimportant to seven being strongly important) for 46 statements that contain recommendations for strengthening the workforce for Health EDRM. The experts were divided into a LMIC group and an HIC group. There were three rounds of rating, and statements that did not reach consensus (SD ≥ 1.0) proceeded to the next round for further ranking.

In total, 44 statements from the LMIC group and 34 statements from the HIC group attained consensus and achieved high mean scores for importance (higher than five out of seven). The components of the World Health Organization (WHO) Health EDRM Framework with the highest number of recommendations were “Human Resources” (n = 15), “Planning and Coordination” (n = 7), and “Community Capacities for Health EDRM” (n = 6) in the LMIC group. “Policies, Strategies, and Legislation” (n = 7) and “Human Resources” (n = 7) were the components with the most recommendations for the HIC group.

The expert panel provided a comprehensive list of important and actionable strategic recommendations on workforce development for Health EDRM.

The prognosis of patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal and middle ear has been improved by advances in skull base surgery and multidrug chemoradiotherapy during the last two decades.

Ninety-five patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the external auditory canal and middle ear who were treated between 1998 and 2017 were enrolled. The number of patients with tumour stages T1, T2, T3 and T4 was 15, 22, 24 and 34, respectively. Oncological outcomes and prognostic factors were retrospectively investigated.

Among patients with T4 disease, invasion of the brain (p = 0.024), carotid artery (p = 0.049) and/or jugular vein (p = 0.040) were significant predictors of poor prognosis. The five-year overall survival rate of patients with at least one of these factors (T4b) was significantly lower than that of patients without these factors (T4a) (25.5 vs 65.5 per cent, p = 0.049).

It is proposed that stage T4 be subclassified into T4a and T4b according to the prognostic factors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between affect and short-term life satisfaction (LS) taking into account the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) and the balance of PA and NA.

The study included 398 students (184 men and 214 women) who completed six questionnaires three of which were used for another study. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was utilized for assessing activated PA and NA. Two subscales of the Multiple Mood Scale were used to measure deactivated PA and NA, and the Short-term Life Satisfaction Scale for LS. Correlation analyses and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to mainly examine the relationships between affect balance (PA-NA and PA/NA) and LS.

The results of correlation analyses showed that LS was positively associated with affect balance in both activated and deactivated dimension. Additionally, the hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed a significant interaction between activated PA and NA, which indicated that the relationship between activated PA and LS in women was strengthened when the level of activated NA was relatively lower.

The findings in this study suggested that students who have stronger PA compared to NA might feel high LS in both activated and deactivated dimension. Moreover, it was suggested that the profitable effect of activated PA on LS in women would be larger when their activated NA was relatively weakened.

We examined the effects of affect and emotional suppression (ES) on short-term life satisfaction (LS). In doing so, we considered the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA).

The final sample included the data collected from 398 students (184 men and 214 women). The mean ages were 19.15 yrs for men and 19.84 yrs for women. Participants answered six questionnaires two of which were used for another study. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule was utilized for assessing activated PA and NA, two subscales of the Multiple Mood Scale to measure deactivated PA and NA, respectively, one subscale of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for gauzing ES, and the Short-term Life Satisfaction Scale for LS. All of them were Japanese versions, answered on the past week.

Results showed that LS was positively associated with PA and negatively with NA, but that its positive association was stronger in activated PA than deactivated PA while its negative association was stronger in deactivated NA than activated NA. The interaction between deactivated NA and ES was significant in men, whose post-hoc tests suggested that deactivated NA was more negatively associated with LS when ES was higher.

This study suggested that activated and deactivated affect differ in their relations to life satisfaction. Moreover, it is likely that the detrimental effect of NA on life satisfaction is larger when the expression of NA is more strongly suppressed.

We examined the effects of affect and emotional suppression (ES) on short-term life satisfaction (LS) and depression. In doing so, we considered the dimension of activation for positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA).

The final sample included the data collected from 496 undergraduate and graduate students (240 men and 256 women). Participants answered seven questionnaires for assessing activated PA and NA, ES of PA and NA, short-term LS, and depression, three of which were used for another study. All of them were Japanese versions, answered on the past week.

Results from hierarchical regression analyses showed that LS was positively associated with PA and negatively with NA, but that its positive association was stronger in activated PA than deactivated PA while its negative association was stronger in deactivated NA than activated NA. Similar findings were obtained for depression. The significant interactions suggested:

1. (1) higher scores of ES of PA weaken the positive association between activated PA and LS in both sexes;

2. (2) higher scores of ES of NA strengthen the negative association between activated NA and LS in men and weaken the association in women; and

3. (3) the positive association between activated NA and depression is weakened by higher scores of ES of NA in women.

This study suggested that activated and deactivated affect differ in their relations to life satisfaction and depression. Moreover, it is likely that although ES of PA and NA influences health, its effects would be different between men and women.

Japanese universities are required to improve both international and Japanese students' mental health, because the number of international students increases annually. Moreover, mental health data for graduate school students in Japan are lacking. Therefore, the present study attempted to examine differences in graduate school students' mental health according to major, grade, and nationality.

A total of 587 students from a Japanese university, which only offers graduate school education, completed the Japanese version of Kessler 6 (K6) as part of their regular health assessments; 542 students agreed to the use of their data for research purposes.

The K6 scores were analyzed using a 3-way (major × grade × nationality) between-subjects ANOVA, and a significant second-order interaction (F(6, 518) = 2.68, p < .05) was observed. As a subsequent 2-way (major × nationality) ANOVA, performed according to grade, only showed an interaction for first-grade master's degree students (M1; F(2, 167) = 7.88, p < .01), comparisons between Japanese and international students were made according to major. For one major, Japanese students' K6 scores tended to be higher relative to those observed in international students (t(36) = 1.98, p < .10). In contrast, international students' K6 scores for another major were significantly higher than were those of Japanese students (t(86) = 3.31, p < .01).

Japanese and international M1 students' K6 scores differed significantly. University staff should take these differences into account and examine ways to support students.