title: Common risk factors for changes in body weight and psychological well-being in Japanese male middle-aged workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Overweight and poor psychological well-being are becoming serious health issues in the Japanese workplace. Concurrence of those physical and mental conditions has been pointed out, especially in middle-aged workers. Therefore, we tried to determine common risk factors for body weight gain and the deterioration of psychological well-being in male middle-aged office workers using a five-year follow-up study.
  
  
  METHODS
  We administered General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) as an indicator of psychological well-being to 110 male workers with ages ranging from 40-59 years, and analyzed the influence of several psychological factors, namely sense of coherence (SOC), health locus of control (HLC), and lifestyle variables such as exercise frequency, alcohol intake, smoking status, and dietary intake on changes of body mass index and GHQ-12 score.
  
  
  RESULTS
  McNemar's chi-squared test showed significant concurrence of weight gain and deterioration of psychological well-being after five-year follow-up. Low-SOC score, low frequency of exercise, and high-dietary intake at supper were significantly associated with both weight gain and poorer psychological well-being in workers, results which were supported by multiple regression analysis.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results suggest that exercise and calorie restriction seem to prevent weight gain and promote psychological well-being in workers. Low SOC, which implies difficulty in coping with stress, may be an important risk factor not only for deterioration of psychological well-being but also for becoming overweight. These assumptions must be confirmed by conducting future intervention studies on SOC and lifestyle including exercise and eating behavior.
authors: Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan.
authors: Takiko
authors: T
authors: Sagara
authors: Yoshiaki
authors: Y
authors: Hitomi
authors: Yasuhiro
authors: Y
authors: Kambayashi
authors: Yuri
authors: Y
authors: Hibino
authors: Ichiyo
authors: I
authors: Matsuzaki
authors: Shinichiro
authors: S
authors: Sasahara
authors: Keiki
authors: K
authors: Ogino
authors: Kotaro
authors: K
authors: Hatta
authors: Hiroyuki
authors: H
authors: Nakamura