title: Having more healthy practice was associated with low white blood cell counts in middle-aged Japanese male and female workers.
abstract: White blood cell (WBC) count is well known to be an independent risk marker for cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study is to examine the relationships of WBC counts to seven health practices including obesity, eating habits, smoking, alcohol intake, sleeping, physical activity, and perceived mental stress, and then clustering the relevant healthy practices. The subjects were 1,492 male and 316 female Japanese workers aged 40 yr and over in 2002. Each of seven health practices from a self-administered questionnaire was categorized as a 'healthy' or 'unhealthy' practice, and WBC counts from fasting blood samples were determined by automated particle counters. The means of age and WBC counts were 49.5 yr and 5,375 cells/microl in men, and 48.6 yr and 4,890 cells/microl in women, respectively. After multivariate adjustments for all health practices and age, the estimated WBC counts were significantly lower in normal weight subjects and never or former smokers (p<0.01). Age-adjusted WBC counts decreased significantly by 204.9+/-23.7 cells/microl (means+/-SE) and 117.6+/-53.2 cells/microl for each increase in one healthy practice (p<0.05), respectively, suggesting that cultivating healthier practices would lead to lower WBC counts. This study recommends modifying unhealthy practice one by one and maintaining healthy practices as an effective strategy for the prevention of atherosclerotic diseases, in addition, to quit smoking or abstain from heavy smoking especially in men is important to prevent the low-grade inflammation.
authors: Department of Public Health, Health Information Dynamics, Field of Social Life Science, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Japan.
authors: Rei
authors: R
authors: Otsuka
authors: Koji
authors: K
authors: Tamakoshi
authors: Keiko
authors: K
authors: Wada
authors: Kunihiro
authors: K
authors: Matsushita
authors: Pei
authors: P
authors: Ouyang
authors: Yo
authors: Y
authors: Hotta
authors: Seiko
authors: S
authors: Takefuji
authors: Hirotsugu
authors: H
authors: Mitsuhashi
authors: Hideaki
authors: H
authors: Toyoshima
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Shimokata
authors: Hiroshi
authors: H
authors: Yatsuya
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D007958:Leukocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires