Associations of occupation, employment type and company size with actions
related to health examinations among Japanese employees

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Abstract

Taking action in response to health examination results is important to stay healthy. We aimed to investigate the associations between occupation, employment type and company size, and having a health examination and taking action in response to the results among Japanese employees. We focused on three particular actions by employees in response to health examination results: paying attention to one’s health, receiving health guidance, and visiting a medical institution. We used anonymous data from the 2010 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions of Japan, a self-administered nationwide questionnaire survey. The data of 23,963 employees (12,938 male and 11,025 female) aged 20–64 yr were analyzed using logistic regression models adjusted by covariates. There were significant changes in odds ratios for receiving a health examination by occupation, employment type and company size. We found significant odds ratios for receiving health guidance by occupation and company size, but there was almost no significant association with paying attention to one’s health and visiting a medical institution. These results confirmed that receiving a health examination was associated with occupational factors, and suggested that receiving health guidance after health examination results was associated with occupation and company size.

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What do we know about who does and does not attend general health checks? Findings from a narrative scoping review

Ruth Dryden, Brian Williams, Colin McCowan … (2012)

Background General and preventive health checks are a key feature of contemporary policies of anticipatory care. Ensuring high and equitable uptake of such general health checks is essential to ensuring health gain and preventing health inequalities. This literature review explores the socio-demographic, clinical and social cognitive characteristics of those who do and do not engage with general health checks or preventive health checks for cardiovascular disease. Methods An exploratory scoping study approach was employed. Databases searched included the British Nursing Index and Archive, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (CDSR) and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE), EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Titles and abstracts of 17463 papers were screened; 1171 papers were then independently assessed by two researchers. A review of full text was carried out by two of the authors resulting in 39 being included in the final review. Results Those least likely to attend health checks were men on low incomes, low socio-economic status, unemployed or less well educated. In general, attenders were older than non-attenders. An individual’s marital status was found to affect attendance rates with non-attenders more likely to be single. In general, white individuals were more likely to engage with services than individuals from other ethnic backgrounds. Non-attenders had a greater proportion of cardiovascular risk factors than attenders, and smokers were less likely to attend than non-smokers. The relationship between health beliefs and health behaviours appeared complex. Non-attenders were shown to value health less strongly, have low self-efficacy, feel less in control of their health and be less likely to believe in the efficacy of health checks. Conclusion Routine health check-ups appear to be taken up inequitably, with gender, age, socio-demographic status and ethnicity all associated with differential service use. Furthermore, non-attenders appeared to have greater clinical need or risk factors suggesting that differential uptake may lead to sub-optimal health gain and contribute to inequalities via the inverse care law. Appropriate service redesign and interventions to encourage increased uptake among these groups is required.

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Rationale and Descriptive Analysis of Specific Health Guidance: the Nationwide Lifestyle Intervention Program Targeting Metabolic Syndrome in Japan

Kazuyo Tsushita, Akiko S. Hosler, Katsuyuki Miura … (2018)

Aim: All health insurers in Japan are mandated to provide Specific Health Checkups and Specific Health Guidance (SHG) focusing on metabolic syndrome (MetS) in middle-aged adults, beginning in 2008; intensive HG for individuals who have abdominal obesity and two or more additional MetS risk factors, and motivational HG for individuals with one risk factor. The aim of this study is to describe medium-term changes in health indexes for intensive and motivational HG groups using the National Database. Methods: We compared changes of risk factors and initiation of pharmacological therapy over 3 yr between participants (n = 31,790) and nonparticipants (n = 189,726) who were eligible for SHG in 2008. Results: Body weight reduction in intensive HG was 1.98 kg (participants) vs 0.42 kg (nonparticipants) in men (p < 0.01) and 2.25 vs 0.68 kg in women (p < 0.01) after 1 yr. In motivational HG, the respective reduction was 1.40 vs 0.30 kg in men (p < 0.01) and 1.53 vs 0.42 kg in women (p < 0.01). Waist circumference reduction was also greatest among participants in intensive HG (2.34 cm in men and 2.98 cm in women). These reductions were fairly unchanged over 3 yr and accompanied greater improvements in MetS risk factors in participants. We also detected significantly smaller percentages of SHG participants who initiated pharmacological therapy compared with nonparticipants. Conclusion: Participants in SHG showed greater improvements in MetS profiles with proportionally smaller pharmacological treatment initiations than did nonparticipants for 3 yr. Although selection bias may be present, this study suggests SHG would be a feasible strategy to prevent MetS and its sequelae.

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Association of occupation, employment contract, and company size with mental health in a national representative sample of employees in Japan.

Hideki Hashimoto, K. Sakurai, Masao Tsuchiya … (2009)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cross-sectional association of employment contract, company size, and occupation with psychological distress using a nationally representative sample of the Japanese population. From June through July 2007, a total of 9,461 male and 7,717 female employees living in the community were randomly selected and surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire and interview including questions about occupational class variables, psychological distress (K6 scale), treatment for mental disorders, and other covariates. Among males, part-time workers had a significantly higher prevalence of psychological distress than permanent workers. Among females, temporary/contract workers had a significantly higher prevalence of psychological distress than permanent workers. Among males, those who worked at companies with 300-999 employees had a significantly higher prevalence of psychological distress than those who worked at the smallest companies (with 1-29 employees). Company size was not significantly associated with psychological distress among females. Additionally, occupation was not significantly associated with psychological distress among males or females. Similar patterns were observed when the analyses were conducted for those who had psychological distress and/or received treatment for mental disorders. Working as part-time workers, for males, and as temporary/contract workers, for females, may be associated with poor mental health in Japan. No clear gradient in mental health along company size or occupation was observed in Japan.

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Author and article information

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Ind Health

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Ind Health

Journal ID (publisher-id): INDHEALTH

Title: Industrial Health

Publisher: National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Japan

ISSN (Print): 0019-8366

ISSN (Electronic): 1880-8026

Publication date (Electronic): 08 December 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2019

Volume: 57

Issue: 4

Pages: 537-546

Affiliations

[1 ]Faculty of Nursing, Fujita Health University School of Health Sciences, Japan

[2 ]Department of Hygiene, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Japan

[3 ]Health Promotion Division of Minami Ward Office, Hamamatsu City, Japan

[4 ]Handa Public Health Center, Aichi Prefecture, Japan

Author notes

*To whom correspondence should be addressed.

E-mail: kawado@ 123456fujita-hu.ac.jp

Article

Publisher ID: 2018-0112

DOI: 10.2486/indhealth.2018-0112

PMC ID: 6685798

PubMed ID: 30531094

SO-VID: 0b3d15ca-9928-4b64-ac02-78b41c1b35a6

License:

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd) License. (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

History

Date received : 19 May 2018

Date accepted : 30 November 2018

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Associations of occupation, employment type and company size with actions related to health examinations among Japanese employees

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China Occupational Medicine

Most cited references 11

What do we know about who does and does not attend general health checks? Findings from a narrative scoping review

Rationale and Descriptive Analysis of Specific Health Guidance: the Nationwide Lifestyle Intervention Program Targeting Metabolic Syndrome in Japan

Association of occupation, employment contract, and company size with mental health in a national representative sample of employees in Japan.

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