1. Purpose and significance of research
In this study, we will ask questions about your knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding health risk factors associated with communicable diseases (CDs) and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as smoking, alcohol consumption, physical inactivity, and unhealthy diet, as well as mental health, oral health, reproductive health*, and hygiene management.
We are particularly targeting university students because we consider this age group to be particularly important for healthy habit formation and health education as they often start smoking and drinking alcohol, and their living environment changes as they begin living alone.
This research will also provide a comparative study among Japan and ASEAN countries. It will examine what measures can be taken globally to reduce the risk of potential diseases and thus increase healthy life expectancy.
*Reproductive health is the capacity to live one's own life, with respect for one's wishes, physically, mentally, and socially, in all matters related to sexuality and childbearing (JOICFP, 2020). It is an important aspect of health for both men and women, as well as essential for social, economic, and human development.
2. Who are the participants?
Every undergraduate student who voluntarily agrees to participate in our study.
3. What will the participants do?
The respondents who choose to participate and give consent can automatically access a web-based questionnaire. The questionnaire has 74 questions, and it takes no longer than 20 minutes to answer.
Participant universities and period of study
Osaka University, Japan
Other universities from: Thailand/ Indonesia/ Lao/ Malaysia/ Brunei
In our study, 1500 participants from Osaka University and 6000 from other participating universities, (a total of 7500 participants) are expected. The study period is from the day of approval by the Institutional Review Board (IRB), Osaka University to 2023/03/31
4. Ethical considerations
This research has been examined by the institutional review board of Osaka University Hospital for its validity from an ethical and scientific point of view and is carried out with the permission of the hospital director.
5. Anticipated disadvantages and compensation for damage to health
There are no particular disadvantages or health hazards anticipated as a result of participation in this study.
6. Is the survey voluntary?
Yes, participation in this survey is completely voluntary. There are no negative consequences if you decline to participate in the study. You can always withdraw from participation at any time, even after the study has begun. If we receive a withdrawal request from you, your information will be deleted from our database immediately. However, it may not be applicable if your information has already been used for publishing an article or another research. We strongly recommend that you read this ‘participant information sheet’ carefully before participating in the survey and contact us in case of any hesitation or questions.
7. What will happen to the results of the study?
The researchers have planned the publication of this research after data collection and analysis. The article will show aggregated results of information derived from the participants, and no one will be identifiable. Any phrases used from survey responses will be anonymized. We will let our participants know when the research findings become publicly available.
8. Handling of personal information
All information gained from our survey will be kept confidential and will not be communicated, divulged, or disclosed. All electronic data will be de-identified, anonymized and replaced with unique IDs during registration that enables linking data with the respondents. The survey questionnaire will collect both personal information (age, gender, nationality, religion etc.) and the main questionnaire response, and both parts will be correlated with their anonymized personal IDs. Therefore, it is completely unlikely to have any breach of confidentiality and anonymity. Additionally, we are keeping data in the highly secured cloud system of Osaka University’s Cyber Media Center using IoT (Internet of Things), so there is the least chance of our online data being hacked or intercepted. Access to the final database will be limited to the principal investigator and other investigators, with some restrictions according to their respective positions. Computers connected to the server for accessing the database will have password-protected encryption and high-security software, and no data will be kept on paper to prevent the chance of being stolen or leakage.
9. Data storage and method of information disclosure
The results of this research will be published in academic meetings and medical journals as aggregated results. All data sets will be kept securely for 5 years after reporting or declaring the study's completion; 3 years from the final publication date of the research results; and 10 years from the publication of the paper in the journal. In the case of secondary use of this study result or dataset, the data storage might be longer than 10 years depending on the rules of iLDi.
10. Research funding sources and conflicts of interest (COI)
This research will be carried out in response to the 2018 "Society 5.0 Realization Research Center Support Project" conducted by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. There is no conflict of interest in this study.
11. The financial burden on the respondents
Communication costs for the online participation of the students will be carried out on their own.
12. Secondary Use of Data
If this study's findings or dataset are used in a subsequent study, we will do so in accordance with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Science and Technology's "Project to Support Research Centers for Realization of Society 5.0 (Through the PLR Platform Established by the Initiative for Life Design Innovation (iLDi)" guidelines. iLDi technically and institutionally constructs a mechanism (Personal Life Record/PLR platform) for secondary use of the individual data obtained in one study for future research. However, we will contact our participants once again and get their consent before starting another project.
13. Researchers
This research is conducted by the researchers from Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University
Principal Investigator:
Ken Nakata, Professor, Global and Innovative Medicine, Osaka University
Other Investigators:
Rie Ogasawara, Lecturer, Global and Innovative Medicine, Osaka University
Tania Tabassum Nisa, Researcher, Global and Innovative Medicine, Osaka University
Daisaku Nakatani , Associate Professor, Global and Innovative Medicine, Osaka University
Yu Moriguchi, Specially appointed lecturer, Global and Innovative Medicine, Osaka University
***Contact us***
