Residents' mental health was associated not only with working conditions, but also with their attitudes towards those working conditions. Enhancing residents' sense of 'reward from work' might be important in reducing their reactions to stress.

Objectives: The number of elderly workers has also been increasing and poor psychological wellbeing in elderly workers has been reported. The aim of this study is to elucidate the factors that are related to poor psychological well-being in elderly workers.Methods: We administered General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) as an indicator of psychological well-being to 330 male elderly workers in the age range of 50-69, and analyzed different psychological factors, namely sense of coherence (SOC), and physical and lifestyle variables such as blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, smoking frequency, alcohol intake, exercise frequency, and body mass index (BMI) that are related to GHQ-12.Results: When the cut-off point of GHQ-12 was 2/3, 97 workers who showed high GHQ-12 score were classified as one group having poor psychological well-being. A statistically significantly lower SOC score, higher stress score, lower frequency of exercise, higher smoking score and higher BMI, but not longer working hours or higher shift work score in the workers with higher GHQ-12 scores were observed than in the workers with normal GHQ-12 scores. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the low SOC score, low frequency of exercise, high smoking frequency and high BMI significantly contributed to the high GHQ-12 score.Conclusions: A low SOC score in elderly workers is assumed to be directly related to poor psychological well-being, or via the development of lifestyle problems such as lack of exercise, obesity, and smoking in elderly workers. This assumption must be confirmed by conducting future intervention studies on lifestyle.

No abstract

Mental health management in the workplace has attracted increasing attention in recent years. As sleep is an essential physiological function that is strongly related to mental condition, easy and daily sleep management is considered essential for maintaining good mental health. In this paper, we detected roll-over movements during sleep using a wearable armband-shaped sensor, SenseWear Pro2 Armband. We then classified sleep depth into two stages, light sleep and deep sleep, based on roll-over frequency. We also propose a new index designated the Sleep Quality Score (SQS). Finally, we performed long-term measurement and compared SQS in healthy people and patients with major depression disorder.

Hotline callers do not always have suicidal ideation and previous studies have noted that the rate of such callers is limited. Crisis hotline counselors must be able to identify high-risk callers in order to provide appropriate support. This study investigated the characteristics of Japanese crisis hotline callers in 2012 (N = 541,694) and is the first to analyze crisis hotline data for all parts of Japan over 1 year. About 14% of the callers had suicidal ideation and 6% had a history of attempted suicide. The odds ratio for suicidal ideation among those with a history of attempted suicide was 15.5. The suicidal ideation rate was much smaller compared to previous studies in other countries. There is a psychological barrier that must be broken for high-risk people to use support hotlines. In addition, attempted suicide is a strong exclusive predisposing factor for death due to suicide; therefore, counselors should pay careful attention to callers with a history of attempted suicide. The characteristics of Japanese crisis hotline callers and the features of suicidal ideation revealed in the present study are expected to be useful in developing telephone crisis hotline strategies.

The associations between mental health and lifestyles differ across age groups. Further study is needed to reveal effects of aging on lifestyle and mental health with a longitudinal design.

Objectives Overweight and poor psychological wellbeing are becoming serious health issues in the Japanese workplace. Concurrence of those physical and mental conditions has been pointed out, especially in middle-aged workers. Therefore, we tried to determine common risk factors for body weight gain and the deterioration of psychological well-being in male middle-aged office workers using a five-year follow-up study. Methods We administered General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) as an indicator of psychological well-being to 110 male workers with ages ranging from 40-59 years, and analyzed the influence of several psychological factors, namely sense of coherence (SOC), health locus of control (HLC), and lifestyle variables such as exercise frequency, alcohol intake, smoking status, and dietary intake on changes of body mass index and GHQ-12 score. ResultsMcNemar's chi-squared test showed significant concurrence of weight gain and deterioration of psychological well-being after five-year follow-up. Low-SOC score, low frequency of exercise, and high-dietary intake at supper were significantly associated with both weight gain and poorer psychological well-being in workers, results which were supported by multiple regression analysis. Conclusions These results suggest that exercise and calorie restriction seem to prevent weight gain and promote psychological well-being in workers. Low SOC, which implies difficulty in coping with stress, may be an important risk factor not only for deterioration of psychological well-being but also for becoming overweight. These assumptions must be confirmed by conducting future intervention studies on SOC and lifestyle including exercise and eating behavior.

The combined study of sick-listed and non-sick-listed workers indicates occupational health services implement problem-solving treatment or CBT interventions, which can shorten total sick leave duration.