title: Associations between hours worked, symptoms and health resource utilization among full-time male Japanese workers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the association between hours worked, symptoms experienced, and health resource utilization.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from a nationally representative sample of households in Japan. We studied full-time male workers aged 18-65 yr who worked 100 h or more per month. First, we examined the association between hours worked and symptoms experienced. Second, we examined the association between hours worked and the type of health resource utilized, such as physician visits, over-the-counter (OTC) medication use, dietary supplement use, and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) provider visits. We used a multivariable negative binominal model in each analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 762 male workers, 598 reported experiencing symptoms at least once a month. We categorized participants based on the number of hours worked per month (h/mo): 100-200 h/mo, 201-250 h/mo, and over 250 h/mo. Compared with those working 201-250 h/mo, those working 100-200 h/mo had more frequent physician visits (rate ratio:1.67, 95% CI: 1.17 to 2.38) and those working over 250 h/mo had significantly lower rates of CAM provider visits and tended to use dietary supplements for symptoms. Participants who worked 201-250 h/mo used OTC medication most frequently. No significant association was observed between the number of hours worked and number of symptoms experienced.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The more hours worked by full-time male workers, the more likely they were to use health resources that had a lower time requirement. Greater attention should be paid to patterns of health resource utilization among workers and their consequent influence on long-term health status.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Health Care Research, Graduate School of Medicine and Public Health, Kyoto University, Japan.
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Shin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yamazaki
authors.forename: Yasuaki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hayashino
authors.forename: Misa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takegami
authors.forename: Yasuharu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tokuda
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Takuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimbo
authors.forename: Shigeaki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hinohara
authors.forename: Tsuguya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukui
authors.forename: Shunichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fukuhara
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000529:Complementary Therapies / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004651:Employment; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006304:Health Status; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D004366:Nonprescription Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017132:Workplace; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004366:Nonprescription Drugs