The influence of total number of favourable working conditions and lifestyle on mental health in Japanese workers in a large company

Abstract

Healthy Work and Lifestyle Scores were totalled, and their influence on the prevalence of mental symptoms was investigated. A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. Participants were workers in a telecommunications enterprise who had received annual health check-ups from 1995 to 1997 and were between 20 and 59 years of age. A self-administered questionnaire survey obtaining information about sex, age, past history of disease, present illness, working conditions, lifestyle and subjective mental symptoms was conducted once a year. Workers with a past history of disease or present illness were excluded from the analysis. In total, 66 004 questionnaires were analysed in this study. Favourable lifestyles and working conditions were enumerated; Healthy Work and Lifestyle Scores were totalled, and their influence on mental symptoms was also investigated. It was found that for every year, the result of ANCOVA suggested that the lower the Healthy Work and Lifestyle Scores, the higher the age-adjusted mean number of perceived mental symptoms. The results of multiple comparisons revealed significant deterioration in the number of perceived mental symptoms in the groups whose Healthy Work and Lifestyle Scores were 0-4-, 5-and 6-point. This comprehensive score suggested that working conditions and lifestyle correlated with the mental health of Japanese workers.

Associations between Lifestyle and Mental Health in a Group of Japanese Overseas Workers and Their Spouses Resident in Duesseldorf, Germany

“…This study's findings differ from those of earlier investigators [27][28][29][30][31][32] , who found stronger associations between lifestyle factors and mental health, rather than the very weak associations found in this study. The previous studies' populations did not consist of overseas workers and their spouses, and they used methods of assessing mental health other than THI.…”

Working Women's Lifestyles and Quality of Life in the Information Society

“…From this standpoint, Suwazono, Okubo, Kobayashi, Kido, and Nokawa (2003) established the Healthy Work and Lifestyle Scores, which combine traditional indicators (physical exercise, smoking, drinking, diet, etc. ) with others related to working conditions (e.g., number of working hours per day, holidays, time spent commuting), noting also that these factors were associated with the perception of the mental health of workers at a large company.…”