Perceived psychological stress and serum leptin concentrations in Japanese men.
OBJECTIVE
To examine epidemiologically whether subjects with higher stress perception levels have higher leptin concentrations.


METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, the study population comprised 1062 male workers at local government offices in central Japan. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed in 1997. Awareness of stress was assessed by the question: "Do you have much stress in your life?" and participants were asked to select from four possible responses: "very much," "much," "ordinary," or "little." Blood samples were also collected after fasting 12 hours overnight to determine serum leptin concentrations.


RESULTS
The mean (standard deviation) age and BMI were 50.2 (6.4) years and 23.3 (2.6) kg/m(2), respectively. Crude leptin concentrations according to stress categories were 2.86, 3.26, 3.32, and 3.54 ng/mL, respectively, and leptin concentrations adjusted for age, BMI, physical activity, drinking and smoking habits, overtime work, shift work, sleep duration, and availability of confidants were 2.96, 3.24, 3.34, and 3.43 ng/mL for "little," "ordinary," "much," and "very much," respectively (p = 0.03 by one-way analysis of covariance; p < 0.01 by test of linear trend). Significant associations were also observed among the level of perceived psychological stress and work-related stressors, variables related to sleep, and other psychological variables.


CONCLUSIONS
This study showed that subjects who perceived psychological stress had high leptin levels, which provides epidemiological evidence that psychological stress may have the potential effect of increasing blood levels of the pleiotropic peptide, leptin.
Otsuka
Rei
R
Department of Public Health/Health Information Dynamics, Field of Social Life Science, Program in Health and Community Medicine, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
Yatsuya
Hiroshi
H
Tamakoshi
Koji
K
Matsushita
Kunihiro
K
Wada
Keiko
K
Toyoshima
Hideaki
H
D000328:Adult; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D044466:Asian People / Q000523:psychology*; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012907:Smoking; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
D020738:Leptin