Enhancement of a Sense of Coherence and Natural Killer Cell Activity which Occurred in Subjects who Improved their Exercise Habits through Health Education in the Workplace

Abstract

independently of other psychological factors. These results suggest that subjects with improvement in exercise enhance NKCA through increased SOC in never smokers. (J Occup Health 2003; 45: 278-285) Key words: Exercise, Health education, Natural killer cell activity, Sense of coherence, Stress, Work SOC, a candidate for a mediating stress factor, is studied in the framework of Antonovsky's salutogenesis paradigm, which emphasizes the origin of health [1][2][3][4] . Life events stressors, depression and anxiety as well as work-setting characteristics, particularly work stressors, influence levels of SOC 2,[5][6][7] . Emotional stress was reported to be associated with a decrease in cellular immune function including natural killer cell activity (NKCA) in humans 8,9) . SOC is involved in NKCA in relation to work stress 10) and life stress 11) . We have suggested that SOC may be an important psychological modifier in determining the relationship between NKCA and smoking 10) . Besides smoking cessation, a worksite exercise program is one of the principal policies to promote health in Japan and other countries [12][13][14] . Exercise enhances NKCA directly or through changes in lifestyles such as cessation of smoking, reduction of weight or possibly psychological outcomes 15,16) , although little is known about the psychological significance of exercise on SOC and NKCA. In the present study, therefore, we examined SOC and NKCA in office workers who improved their exercise habits after health education to clarify the effects of exercise on SOC and NKCA.Received Sep 11, 2002; Accepted June 19, 2003 Abstract: Enhancement of a Sense of Coherence and Natural Killer Cell Activity which Occurred in Subjects who Improved their Exercise Habits through Health Education in the Workplace: H i r o y u k i N A K A M U R A, e t a l . D e p a r t m e n t o f Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University-We have previously demonstrated that a sense of coherence (SOC), a candidate for a mediating stress factor, is involved in natural killer cell activity (NKCA) reduced in smokers, whereas the relationship among exercise, NKCA and SOC is unclear. To clarify the effects of exercise on SOC and NKCA, we examined the changes in SOC and NKCA before and after health education to encourage exercise. Of one-hundred and one male office workers who received the health education for one year, 27 improved, 65 were unchanged and 9 had deteriorated exercise habits. The repeated measures analysis of variance showed that SOC in workers with improvement in the exercise habit were increased more significantly by the health education than those in workers without improvement (p<0.05). Although the change in NKCA produced by health education was recognized to be significantly different in those who had never smoked from that in current smokers (p<0.05), multiple regression analysis demonstrated that improvement in health practice significantly contributed to increases in both SOC (p<0.01) and NKCA (p...

Common risk factors for changes in body weight and psychological well-being in Japanese male middle-aged workers

“…Takayama et al [32] showed that SOC is positively related to psychological health, which suggests the buffering effect of SOC on the maintenance of normal psychological health in dealing with stressful life events. We have previously demonstrated that SOC may be an important psychological modifier for determining lifestyle, including exercise and dietary habits [33], smoking behavior [34], and reaction to job stress [35]. Taken together with such a close relationship between SOC and stress coping, our results imply that inappropriate stress coping leads to body weight gain and to poorer psychological well-being.…”

“…Taken together with such a close relationship between SOC and stress coping, our results imply that inappropriate stress coping leads to body weight gain and to poorer psychological well-being. Although life stress event and job stress including SOC are important risk factors for poor psychological well-being [11,33,34,36], our finding that low SOC leads to subsequent body weight gain in older workers is very striking. The cohort study followed-up over 14 years by Chandola et al [8,37], who examined cumulative work stress, using the Job Strain Questionnaire on four occasions, as a predictor of obesity in a prospective 19-year study of 6,895 men and 3,413 women (aged 35-55 years) in the Whitehall II cohort in London, UK (baseline: 1985-1988), reported a dose-response relationship between work stress and risk of general obesity (BMI 30 kg/m 2 ).…”

Psychological factors including sense of coherence and some lifestyles are related to general health questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) in elderly workers in Japan

“…Takayama et al (35) showed that SOC is positively related to psychological health, suggesting the buffering effect of SOC on the maintenance of normal psychological health in dealing with stressful life events. We previously demonstrated that SOC is also closely associated with exercise frequency (4) and smoking habit (5). On the basis of our findings, a low SOC score seems to be related to poor psychological well-being in elderly workers directly, or via lifestyle problems such as the lack of exercise, obesity, and smoking associated with a low SOC score.…”

Sense of Coherence (SOC) may Reduce the Effects of Occupational Stress on Mental Health Status among Japanese Factory Workers

“…Individual differences in SOC are associated with healthy life choices independently of social class and education, and may aid the design of future health promotion interventions 27) . Attempt has been made to enhance SOC in the workplace 11) , despite the fact that SOC is generally regarded as a stable personal factor which develops during the childhood and adolescence, and gradually reaches stability in early adulthood 1,28) . However, as evidence has been given that SOC considerably changes over a 4-yr period among a representative sample of Canadian labor force 29) , SOC can be increased by an appropriate intervention to improve stress-coping ability in the workplace.…”

“…In Japanese, SOC is reported to buffer the effects of stressful life events on mental health status 7) . Also, SOC is found to be associated with physical health issues such as the risk of coronary heart disease 8) and Type 2 diabetes 9) , serum cholesterol levels 10) , natural killer cell activities 11) , and incidence of external cause injuries 12) .…”