Tetsuya Hasegawa

Job Stress and Mental Health among Permanent Night Workers

Job Stress and Mental Health among Permanent Night Workers: Yoshihisa Fujino, et al. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute of Industrial Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health—Shift work, including rotating shift night work, and permanent night work, causes mental health problems. In addition to the shift work system, job stress and individual background factors also relate to the mental health of workers, but details of job stress and mental health problems among permanent night workers are still unclear. The purpose of this study is to examine the amount of job stress and the mental health problems among permanent night workers, and also to examine what factors should determine the mental health condition of the permanent night worker. The study group consisted of 435 garbage workers, and 384 workers completed the questionnaire, which included the NIOSH generic job stress questionnaire and 30 items of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Workers with a GHQ score of 7 or more were defined as having psychiatric disturbance. Multiple logistic regression was performed to estimate the odds ratios (ORs) for psychiatric disturbance, including age, type of work, working year, marital status, and some scales of the NIOSH generic job stress questionnaire. The married workers were less likely to have mental health problems than single workers (OR=0.49,95% 01=0.29‐0.85). The mental health of the workers with lower job control was better than the workers with higher job control (OR=0.46, 95% 01=0.26‐0.79). The workers with a higher workload were more likely to have mental health problems (OR=2.86, 95% CI=1.76‐4.67). This study showed that person with a high workload, high job control, and who were single had increased ORs for psychiatric disturbance among permanent night workers.

Stress and Aging Effects on Female Workers

In this project, the mental stress of both young and middle to elderly aged female sales clerks in a large-scale department store in Japan was investigated. Six subjects in each of the two age groups were from 27–33 years and 49–56 years. Measures were recorded regarding the function of concentration TAF-test), CFF-test, multiple choice reaction time, the displacement of bodys center of gravity per one minute with eyes opened, tapping ability test per 20 sec., crural circumference and blood pressure. Heart rate was also measured during working hours. Questionnaires were administrated to establish their attitude toward their jobs, and to evaluate their subjective feelings of fatigue and state of health. Results indicated that the function of concentration (TAF) when compared with pre-work values was significantly reduced only in the middle to elderly group. In both groups, the CFF showed a significant lowering and the crural circumference was significantly increased compared with pre-work values. The level of CFF value and tapping ability in the middle to elderly group lowerd significantly in comparison with the younger group. However, compared with the younger group, the middle to elderly group felt a decrease in sujective feelings of fatigue and bordom. Moreover, another interesting finding was that the displacement of bodys center of gravity in the middle to elderly group was markedly smaller than that of the younger group due to years spent standing erect during their work.

Factor analysis of risk-taking behavior in forest work

In this study, the data obtained by a questionnaire survey were analyzed to examine the difference with the type of occupation, consistency in each situation, the inductive and restraint factors of the risk-taking behavior in the forest work to elucidate the risk-taking behavior in forest work. The results showed that (1) the Kyushu Forest Cooperative Association’s staff members underestimate the risk, but have a strong recognition of “law observance,” (2) the supervisor or instructor has low consciousness of risk, (3) as the inductive factor of behavior, one’s own benefit in the daily situation is given the highest priority, but risk is the most important factor in situations concerning forest work and forest machine operation and handling, irrespective of the accuracy of the risk evaluation, (4) as the restraint factor of behavior, although there is a difference in the risk evaluation whether large or small, risk is given priority by all workers, and (5) the dare probability of each risk-taking behavior is highly correlated with the risk evaluation of the behavior. Among others, low consciousness of the supervisor or instructor concerning safety management is pointed out as a main factor in worker’s accidents, and reconsideration of the relationship between the supervisor or instructor and workers is necessary.

Work Load in Culture of Shiitake Mushroom

Plugging-in of a wood piece for the culture of shiitake mushroom is one of machine-assisted works in forestry, and is achieved by the use of an electric drill. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of this work on the psychophysiological functions of workers. The work consisted of two conditions ; working on a work table and working on the bare ground. The work load was examined by multifaceted observation. Results indicated that the CFF and the function of concentration (TAF-test) when compared with pre-work values were not significantly reduced after approximately 50 minutes of work. But the work perfonuance produced a local muscular load due to work in unnatural work postures and the workers feel fatigue due to work itself. However, working on the work table had effects on mitigation on the work load, shortening of the working time and improvement of the work postures.