Mayumi Watanabe

Development of Japanese version of the checklist individual strength questionnaire in a working population.

Development of Japanese Version of the Checklist Individual Strength Questionnaire in a Working Population: Yutaka Aratake, et al. Department of Occupational Mental Healthl, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kitasato University—The aims of the present study were to develop and validate the Japanese version of the checklist individual strength questionnaire (CIS) which is used to measure prolonged fatigue not only in the general population but also in the working population. We obtained permission to use CIS from its author and translated the questionnaire into Japanese. Then, the Japanese version of the questionnaire was translated back into English by a bilingual person. The author of the original version agreed that the back‐translated version was conceptually and linguistically equivalent to the original CIS. To validate CIS, 399 workers (66.7% were men) from different companies answered the Japanese version of the CIS (CIS‐J), Maslach burnout inventory‐general survey (MBI‐GS), Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II), visual analogue scale (VAS) questionnaires for subjective fatigue, number of overtime hours and number of hours of sleep. Cronbachs α for the total CIS‐J score was 0.91. The test‐retest reliability assessed with an intra‐class correlation coefficient was 0.82. Although confirmatory factor analysis did not show an ideal model fit, the correlation coefficients between the total CIS score and the MBI‐GS exhaustion score, the BDI‐II score and the VAS score were 0.58 (p<0.01), 0.66 (p<0.01) and 0.63 (p<0.01), respectively. The less workers slept and the longer they worked, the higher their total CIS score became. CIS‐J showed good reliability and acceptable validity in the working population. Thus, it could be useful for studying fatigue among Japanese working populations.

Maternity blues as predictor of postpartum depression: a prospective cohort study among Japanese women.

Background. Maternity blues and postpartum depression are common complications of childbearing. However, few studies have shown the relationship between the severity of maternity blues and the risk of postnatal depression. We carried out a longitudinal study among Japanese women to show that maternity blues is a useful factor for predicting postpartum depression. Methods. Two hundred and thirty-five women completed questionnaires before delivery, and five days, one month, and three months after delivery. They were required to answer the Steins Blues Scale and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and other variables. A sequential logistic regression analysis was performed to estimate the association of maternity blues with postpartum depression. The stratum-specific likelihood ratio was then calculated. Results. The prevalence of postpartum depression was 12.8%. A Steins Blues Scale of eight or above was significantly associated with postnatal depression. Likelihood ratios (95% CI ) for the Steins Blues Scale of 0 to 3, 4 to 7, 8 to 11 and 12 or more were 0.33 (0.16–0.65), 1.06 (0.60–1.88), 3.42 (1.64–7.12) and 9.57 (3.41–26.86), respectively. Conclusions. These findings suggest that maternity blues is a strong predictor of postpartum depression. The higher the blues score, the higher the risk of postpartum depression.

Analysis of risk of medical errors using structural-equation modelling: a 6-month prospective cohort study

Background Medical-error analyses have been conducted to determine the root cause of adverse events and near misses. More precise determination of the cause-and-effect relationship likely will require a prospective design path analysis including both direct and indirect effects. Methods The authors performed a 6-month prospective cohort study using structural-equation modelling (SEM). Of the 879 nurses approached, 789 (89.8%) were included in the final analysis. Potential predictors provided for analysis included age, years of nursing experience, mean frequency of night shifts per month, nursing-specific job stressors, degree of depression, frequency of feeling unskilled, feeling time pressure, feeling a lack of communication between self and other hospital staff members, frequency of suffering from sleep disturbance and frequency of feeling a decrease in attention. The authors regarded a latent variable composed of frequencies for near misses and adverse events as an outcome. Results and conclusion The SEM model constructed in this study suggested that potential root causes (exogenous variables directly or indirectly connected to the outcome which are not affected by other variables) were years of nursing experience, feeling unskilled, job stressors and sleep disturbance, with estimated standardised total (direct and indirect) effects of −0.22, 0.21, 0.008 and 0.005, respectively. A prospective design path analysis using the SEM model for both direct and indirect effects enabled a statistical exploration of root causes and estimation of their impact on the outcome. Our findings suggested such an analysis to be useful in devising countermeasures against medical errors.

The impact of job and family demands on partner’s fatigue: A study of Japanese dual-earner parents

Objectives This study of Japanese dual-earner couples examined the impact of family and job demands on one’s own and one’s partner’s fatigue as well as gender differences in these effects. Methods A total of 2,502 parents (1,251 couples) were surveyed using a self-administered questionnaire. A crossover model was tested using structural equation modeling. Results The results of structural equation modeling analyses showed that both job and family demands independently exacerbated fatigue. There was an indirect effect of job and family demands on partner fatigue through one’s own fatigue only from husbands to wives. An indirect effect of job demands on partner fatigue through partner’s family demands was identified only from wives to husbands. Furthermore, there were gender differences in the crossover of fatigue. Conclusions This study shows that job and family demands influence family circumstances. When considering means to reduce employees’ fatigue, gender differences in the mechanism of fatigue need to be taken into account.