Behavioral lifestyle and mental health status of Japanese factory workers.
BACKGROUND
Lifestyle factors, sometimes associated with physical health and mortality, have also been known to be associated with mental health status. This study seeks to correlate behavioral lifestyles with major components of mental health among Japanese factory workers.


METHODS
We administered the 28-item version of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) and a questionnaire concerning eight personal health practices to 2,132 male and 668 female factory workers at a camera-manufacturing company in Japan.


RESULTS
There were strong negative relationships of a higher total number of favorable lifestyles as indicated by the Health Practice Index (HPI) to psychological distress and its components: somatic symptoms, anxiety-insomnia, and social dysfunction. After controlling for the effects of confounding factors that included age, marital status, and somatic condition, multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that five of the eight health factors among male workers--mental stress, nutritional balance, eating breakfast regularly, physical exercise, and working hours--were significantly related to the grade of psychological distress or its three components. Among female workers, five health practices, i.e., mental stress, physical exercise, sleeping hours, working hours, and cigarette smoking, were significantly associated with the grade of psychological distress or its three components.


CONCLUSIONS
Good health practices might be individually and as a whole associated with better mental health status in factory workers.
Ezoe
S
S
Department of Hygiene and Preventive Medicine, Osaka University School of Medicine, Japan.
Morimoto
K
K
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015986:Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007221:Industry; D008019:Life Style; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012890:Sleep; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload