Shinichiro Sasahara

Roll-over Detection and Sleep Quality Measurement using a Wearable Sensor

Mental health management in the workplace has attracted increasing attention in recent years. As sleep is an essential physiological function that is strongly related to mental condition, easy and daily sleep management is considered essential for maintaining good mental health. In this paper, we detected roll-over movements during sleep using a wearable armband-shaped sensor, SenseWear Pro2 Armband. We then classified sleep depth into two stages, light sleep and deep sleep, based on roll-over frequency. We also propose a new index designated the Sleep Quality Score (SQS). Finally, we performed long-term measurement and compared SQS in healthy people and patients with major depression disorder.

Psychological Factors Including Sense of Coherence and Some Lifestyles are Related to General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) in Elderly Workers in Japan

ObjectivesThe number of elderly workers has also been increasing and poor psychological well-being in elderly workers has been reported. The aim of this study is to elucidate the factors that are related to poor psychological well-being in elderly workers.MethodsWe administered General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12) as an indicator of psychological well-being to 330 male elderly workers in the age range of 50–69, and analyzed different psychological factors, namely sense of coherence (SOC), and physical and lifestyle variables such as blood pressure, serum total cholesterol, smoking frequency, alcohol intake, exercise frequency, and body mass index (BMI) that are related to GHQ-12.ResultsWhen the cut-off point of GHQ-12 was 2/3, 97 workers who showed high GHQ-12 score were classified as one group having poor psychological well-being. A statistically significantly lower SOC score, higher stress score, lower frequency of exercise, higher smoking score and higher BMI, but not longer working hours or higher shift work score in the workers with higher GHQ-12 scores were observed than in the workers with normal GHQ-12 scores. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that the low SCO score, low frequency of exercise, high smoking frequency and high BMI significantly contributed to the high GHQ-12 score.ConclusionsA low SOC score in elderly workers is assumed to be directly related to poor psychological well-being, or via the development of lifestyle problems such as lack of exercise, obesity, and smoking in elderly workers. This assumption must be confirmed by conducting future intervention studies on lifestyle.

The effect of stress‐related factors on mental health status among resident doctors in Japan

Medical Education 2010: 44: 826–834

Enhancement of a Sense of Coherence and Natural Killer Cell Activity which Occurred in Subjects who Improved their Exercise Habits through Health Education in the Workplace

Enhancement of a Sense of Coherence and Natural Killer Cell Activity which Occurred in Subjects who Improved their Exercise Habits through Health Education in the Workplace: Hiroyuki Nakamura, et al. Department of Environmental and Preventive Medicine, Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa University— We have previously demonstrated that a sense of coherence (SOC), a candidate for a mediating stress factor, is involved in natural killer cell activity (NKCA) reduced in smokers, whereas the relationship among exercise, NKCA and SOC is unclear. To clarify the effects of exercise on SOC and NKCA, we examined the changes in SOC and NKCA before and after health education to encourage exercise. Of one‐hundred and one male office workers who received the health education for one year, 27 improved, 65 were unchanged and 9 had deteriorated exercise habits. The repeated measures analysis of variance showed that SOC in workers with improvement in the exercise habit were increased more significantly by the health education than those in workers without improvement (p<0.05). Although the change in NKCA produced by health education was recognized to be significantly different in those who had never smoked from that in current smokers (p<0.05), multiple regression analysis demonstrated that improvement in health practice significantly contributed to increases in both SOC (p<0.01) and NKCA (p<0.05) in never smokers, independently of other psychological factors. These results suggest that subjects with improvement in exercise enhance NKCA through increased SOC in never smokers.

Association of Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in the Eosinophil Peroxidase Gene with Japanese Cedar Pollinosis

Background: Japanese cedar pollinosis is the most common form of hay fever in spring in Japan. We have previously demonstrated that single nucleotide polymorphism Pro358Leu of exon 7 in the eosinophil peroxidase (EPO) gene is associated with cedar pollinosis, although the association has not been confirmed by analysis of the whole gene in a different population. Methods: We sequenced all exons of the EPO gene in 60 children with pollinosis and their parents using the PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. Results: We found 8 polymorphisms, Ile40Met, Gln122His, Arg202Arg (A660G), Asn303Asn (C909T), Arg326Pro, Arg326His, Pro358Leu, and Asn572Ty, in the EPO gene. As a result of the transmission disequilibrium test, we recognized significant transmissions of 202Arg (660G) in exon 6 in addition to 358Leu of exon 7 in the EPO gene of affected children. Conclusions: Our results might indicate that polymorphisms of the EPO gene are associated with Japanese cedar pollinosis.

Genotypes and Haplotypes of CCR2 and CCR3 Genes in Japanese Cedar Pollinosis

Whole genome scan analyses have revealed that the chromosomal region 3p21.3, which contains a gene cluster of the CC chemokine receptor, is possibly critical for the pathogenesis of allergic inflammation. Japanese cedar pollinosis is mediated by a type I allergy and induces seasonal rhinitis and conjunctivitis in humans as the most common form of hay fever in spring in Japan, although the candidate genes for cedar pollinosis remain to be elucidated. We sequenced CCR1, CCR2, CCR3, CCR5, and CCXCR1 using the PCR restriction fragment length polymorphism method in subjects with cedar pollinosis and controls. We found 8 polymorphisms of A111G, Arg127Cys and Arg252Gln in CCXCR1, T885C in CCR1, Val64Ile and T780C in CCR2, T51C in CCR3 and Arg223Gln in CCR5. The transmission disequilibrium test using 60 children with pollinosis and their parents and an association study using unrelated adult subjects (151 patients and 157 controls) showed a significant association of 64Ile in CCR2 and 51C in CCR3 with cedar pollinosis. The frequency of haplotype 64Ile/780C/51C in pollinosis was significantly higher than in controls. Our results suggest that CCR2 and CCR3 genes are candidate genes for Japanese cedar pollinosis.

Association between altered systemic inflammatory interleukin‐1β and natural killer cell activity and subsequently agitation in patients with alzheimer disease

Alzheimers disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and is frequently accompanied by emotional disorder, including agitation. Although evidence of neuroendocrine immune and inflammatory functions during emotional changes has been accumulated, the pathogenic mechanisms in the development of agitation accompanied by AD remain to be elucidated.

New Mental Health Index based on Physiological Signals at Transition between Arousal and Sleeping State

The number of people who have mental health problems, such as depressive disorders, is increasing, but many patients do not take suitable medical treatment due to a lack of clear subjective symptoms. Mental disorders may manifest themselves in term of measurable physiological signals. Using a wearable sensor, we measured heat flux, skin temperature and GSR in healthy people and patients with depressive disorders for more than 50 days, and confirmed that an index to represent mental health condition can be established on differences in some of these sensory data.

Risk Factors for Suicidal Ideation Among Telephone Crisis Hotline Callers in Japan

BACKGROUND Telephone hotlines are a widely used type of suicide prevention program. AIMS The aim of this study was to clarify the risk factors for suicidal ideation by investigating its association with a number of characteristics among telephone hotline callers. METHOD Data were collected over a 10-year period from a total of 246,595 calls to Inochi No Denwa, a telephone crisis hotline in Ibaraki, Japan, and subsequently analyzed. Odds ratios for suicidal compared with nonsuicidal ideation were also calculated. RESULTS About 6% of the calls to the hotline were suicide related, and about 2% of the callers had attempted suicide in the past. Odds ratios for suicidal ideation increased during winter, but no daily tendencies were evident. Those whose problems were related to their way of life were at the highest risk of suicidal ideation, followed by those with health-related concerns. CONCLUSION We were able to identify risk factors for suicidal ideation based on an analysis of enormous amounts of data from a telephone crisis hotline in Japan. Knowledge of these risk factors is expected to lead to improvements in suicide prevention programs.

Relationship between sickness presenteeism and awareness and presence or absence of systems for return to work among workers with mental health problems in Japan : an Internet-based cross-sectional study

Relationship between sickness presenteeism and awareness and presence or absence of systems for return to work among workers with mental health problems in Japan: an Internet‐based cross‐sectional study: Shotaro Doki, et al. Graduate School of Comprehensive Human Sciences, University of Tsukuba