Industrial Health最新文献

This study investigated the relationship between work engagement, workaholism, and mental well-being of individuals and their intimate partners. This association was explored in the context of Indonesian dual-earner couples, using the Spillover-Crossover Model (SCM). The study examined how work-to-family spillover (i.e. work-to-family conflict and facilitation) and recovery experiences (i.e. psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control) mediate these relationships. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 186 Indonesian dual-earner couples with preschool children. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model and bootstrap method was conducted to evaluate the indirect relationships. As hypothesized, among male and female workers, work engagement was positively related to individual's mental well-being through work-to-family facilitation and recovery experiences. In contrast, workaholism was negatively related to individual's mental well-being through work-to-family conflict and recovery experiences excluding psychological detachment. Individual's mental well-being, in turn, was positively related to intimate partner's mental well-being. These findings suggested that work engagement and workaholism were related to intimate partner's mental well-being differently. These results further supported the SCM, suggesting that higher work engagement could increase workers' and their intimate partners' mental well-being through work-to-family facilitation and their recovery experiences, while workaholism acts oppositely.

The influence of night shift work on circadian heart-rate rhythm was examined in nurses engaged in shift work using a Holter electrocardiogram, continuously measured for two weeks, and cosine periodic regression analysis. We enrolled 11 nurses who were engaged in a two-shift system. The R² value in the cosine regression curve of heart-rate rhythm (concordance rate), indicating the concordance rate between the actual heart rate over 24 h and the cosine regression curve approximated by the least-squares procedure, was significantly lower in the night shift (0.40 ± 0.15) than in the day shift (0.66 ± 0.19; p<0.001). Moreover, the amplitude was significantly lower and the acrophase was significantly delayed in the night shift. Thus, the circadian heart-rate rhythm was disrupted by the night shift work. Although the heart-rate acrophase recovered during the day and two days after the night shift, the concordance rate and amplitude did not recover, indicating that the influence of night shift work on circadian heart-rate rhythm might persist even two days after the night shift. Based on these results, adequate clinical attention should be paid to how to spend the day and two days after the night shift to correct the circadian heart-rate rhythm disruption caused by night shift work.

The study tested a brief intervention to stimulate and help supervisors reduce work-related interruptions among their employees, both at work and during leisure time. The core of the short-term intervention was a workplace analysis of work-related interruptions, which was fed back to supervisors in combination with a work redesign stimulation explaining why and how to reduce interruptions. Two intervention sessions, as one-on-one physical meetings, that lasted 1.5 h each and were 2 wk apart. The sample consisted of 20 managers and 89 employees. The non-experimental repeated measurement design comprised three questionnaire measurements of the 89 employees (two pre-measurements and one post-measurement). Repeated measure hierarchical linear models showed that the intervention significantly predicted reduced interruptions during work and work-related interruptions of leisure time. Although the intervention effect sizes were small, the current work design intervention with supervisors as mediating actors can reasonably contribute to occupational health prevention.

Laughter is related to better well-being in daily life. Previous cross-sectional research among employees showed a positive relationship between laughter and work-related well-being (i.e., work engagement). However, longitudinal and even bidirectional relationships have not been yet explored. This study thus investigated the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships of laughter, with work engagement and workaholism as positive and negative aspects of work-related well-being. Specifically, we conducted two-wave web-based surveys among Japanese employees via an Internet survey company with a one-year interval, and 855 valid data were analyzed. The hypotheses were then tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that increases in laughter during the previous year were positively and negatively related to future work engagement and workaholism, respectively. In addition, through changes in laughter, the initial work engagement led to future work engagement (gain cycle), whereas initial workaholism led to future workaholism (loss cycle). These findings suggest that laughter and work-related well-being influence each other reciprocally rather than unidirectionally. This underlines the importance of studying reversed as well as regular causal effects in the relationship between laughter and employee well-being.

The psychological states of wives and husbands are thought to influence each other to varying degrees. However, relatively little is known from a longitudinal observation about the effects of spouses' psychological distress and well-being on their mental health. To address this question, we analyzed the TWIN Study II dataset using a three-wave annual survey of the psychological distress and happiness of 379 dual-income families. A group-based trajectory modeling analysis was conducted to identify psychological distress patterns and happiness over time, while estimating the effects of spouses' psychological distress and happiness and their own job demands, control, and support as time-varying covariates. The two- or three-group trajectory model best fit husbands' and wives' psychological distress and happiness trajectories. Husbands' trajectories of psychological distress and happiness were significantly influenced by wives' happiness as well as their own job demands and/or support, whereas wives' happiness and psychological distress were not.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is becoming prevalent among younger people who have dual roles at both work and home. A possible contributor to CVD is conflict between work and home life. Thus, this study investigated the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) on metabolic risk factors. We used longitudinal data with a 4-yr interval from the Midlife in Japan study. 152 participants who were employed at baseline without missing variables of interest were included. We assessed the associations of baseline WFC and FWC with changes in metabolic risk factors between baseline and follow-up using Generalized Estimating Equations. After adjusting for baseline sociodemographic, work and family-related, and lifestyle factors, the fully adjusted model showed WFC was significantly associated with changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and Total cholesterol (TC)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio. However, FWC was not significantly associated with changes in any metabolic risk factors. Our findings indicated a significant impact of WFC on LDL-C and TC/HDL-C ratio but no significant impact of FWC on metabolic health. Since these metabolic risk factors cause CVD, understanding the physiological responses to occupational psychosocial stress could help create primary prevention interventions and assess their effects on workers' metabolic health.

This study sought to investigate whether association between customer verbal abuse and depressive symptoms differed by workload. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 795 cosmetic sales workers at department store in South Korea. Experience of customer verbal abuse over the past one month was measured by using a yes/no question. Depressive symptoms during the preceding week were assessed by using 20 items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. Workload during the past week was measured by asking the number of customers a worker dealt with on average in a day and classified into two categories: 1) Low (15 people or less), and 2) High (more than 15 people). Cosmetics sales workers' experience of customer verbal abuse was associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms (PR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.15-1.63). After being stratified by workload, customer verbal abuse showed a statistically significant association with depressive symptoms among high workload groups (PR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.19-1.79), whereas the association was not statistically significant among low workload group (PR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.91-1.65). Our findings suggest that experience of customer verbal abuse could have a negative influence on depressive symptoms among high-workload cosmetics sales workers in South Korea.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) caused substantial morbidity among occupationally active populations. However, data regarding the longitudinal burden of CVD were limited, particularly among school teachers. The objectives of our study were to estimate the incidence rate of CVD and determine its predictors among school teachers in Peninsular Malaysia through a prospective cohort study. We followed 14,046 eligible school teachers recruited between 2013 and 2014 until 31st December 2021. We accessed three computerised, country-level registries to determine incident CVD cases during the study period from 2013 to 2021. Baseline sociodemographic, lifestyle, work-related and clinical characteristics were recorded. Cox proportional hazard regression models with adjusted hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval were reported. With a median follow-up of 7.71 yr, we observed 209 incident CVD cases (or 195.7 CVD cases per 100,000 person-years). Male gender, age ≥40 yr old, Indian or others ethnicity (as compared to Chinese), family history of CVD, laboratory-confirmed diabetes mellitus, self-reported hypertension, high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high triglyceride were predictors for incident CVD among school teachers. Neither work-related nor lifestyle factors were significantly associated with incident CVD. Screening at-risk teachers for diabetes mellitus, hypertension or dyslipidemia is recommended to delay the onset or progression of CVD.

This study investigated association of Perceived Organization Support (POS) with diabetes treatment among workers. This prospective cohort study was conducted online, and parts of nations wide study stratified similarly with workers' characteristic in Japan. Samples were screened to those who had diabetes in the baseline years. Binary regression analysis and p for trend were used for statistical analysis. There were 1,203 participants with diabetes followed up regarding their treatment behavior. Higher POS were likely to seek appropriate diabetes treatment after adjustment with personal and occupational factors (p=0.032) but became marginally significant when adjusted with night shift status (p=0.051). Further analysis found that POS was only associated with diabetes treatment among workers with night shift. Higher POS was likely associated with proper diabetes treatment specifically among workers with night shift.

Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners are at an increased risk of mental disorders in addition to stress directly related to their business performance. However, steps to protect SME owners' mental health are lacking, and no occupational stress scale has been developed to accurately understand the real-world situation. Based on a nationwide internet survey of 1,000 Japanese SME owners aged 20-79 years with five or more employees, we developed a novel occupational stress scale for SME owners. The 43-item scale assesses job stress factors and modifying factors (individual, non-work, and buffering factors). The validity and reliability of the scale were verified. The job stress factors were unique among SME owners and differed from those of employees, with moderate positive correlations with both psychological distress and presenteeism. Further, the study revealed the roles of modifying factors; work-family conflict increased presenteeism and psychological distress, while self-care and social support decreased them. The findings provide important insights for assessing psychological stress among SME owners, informing future mental health intervention strategies among this population.