13-4Regular bathing and sleep quality among older Japanese: large scale JAGES project / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

<b>Objectives:</b> To reveal a relationship between bathing and sleep quality making for healthy aging.<BR><b>Materials and Methods:</b> A population based self-administered mail survey was conducted for randomly selected or all independent people without long-term care needs aged 65 and over in 31 municipalities of Japan in 2010. This data is a part of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) project. Frequency of bathing using bathtub in summer and winter was asked. Logistic regression analyses were applied to estimate univariate and multivariate odds ratios of bad sleep quality by regular bathing (7 times or more per week for average of summer and winter) adjusting sex, age, equivalized household income, self-rated health, depression, working status, and region. <BR><b>Results:</b> Response rate of the mail survey was 66.3%. The number of people who made a valid answer for bathing was 18,090. Among them, 53.0% did bathing 7 times a week, 44.6% did less than 7 times, and 2.4% did more than 7 times. Odds ratios by regular bathing were shown on the tables. Most of them indicated significantly low risk for sleeping problems.<BR><b>Conclusion: </b>Regular bathing would be helpful to better sleep quality. After the survey, we are now following up the participants for incidence of long-term care needs and death.

13-4 Regular bathing and sleep quality among older Japanese: large scale JAGES project / 日本温泉気候物理医学会雑誌

Objectives: To reveal a relationship between bathing and sleep quality making for healthy aging. Materials and Methods: A population based self-administered mail survey was conducted for randomly selected or all independent people without long-term care needs aged 65 and over in 31 municipalities of Japan in 2010. This data is a part of the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study (JAGES) project. Frequency of bathing using bathtub in summer and winter was asked. Logistic regression analyses were applied to estimate univariate and multivariate odds ratios of bad sleep quality by regular bathing (7 times or more per week for average of summer and winter) adjusting sex, age, equivalized household income, self-rated health, depression, working status, and region. Results: Response rate of the mail survey was 66.3%. The number of people who made a valid answer for bathing was 18,090. Among them, 53.0% did bathing 7 times a week, 44.6% did less than 7 times, and 2.4% did more than 7 times. Odds ratios by regular bathing were shown on the tables. Most of them indicated significantly low risk for sleeping problems. Conclusion: Regular bathing would be helpful to better sleep quality. After the survey, we are now following up the participants for incidence of long-term care needs and death.

Investigation of supplement usage and awareness in working adults / 日本プライマリ・ケア連合学会誌

Objective: Gender differences in the usage of supplements by working adults and their awareness of them. <br>Methods: Full-time employees of Company A in the Tokai region of Japan and their spouses were given cross-sectional questionnaires (response rate: 61.3%), and 658 responses from full-time employees and their spouses were analyzed. <br>Results: Supplements were used by 23.7% of the participants. They were used by significantly more women than men, and women also had a greater tendency to seek advice regarding supplement use (advice sought by: women, 44.9%; men, 24.1%; p=0.01). Advice was only rarely sought from professionals. The greatest number of respondents stated that they were unsure whether they were satisfied with their supplement use. <br>Conclusions: Few participants sought out professional advice when taking supplements and many participants appeared to continue using supplements without noticing any improvement. This suggests both the need for further training of professionals to give more appropriate advice regarding necessary supplement use as well as the need to encourage education aimed at creating eating behavior that does not rely simply on supplements.

Factors relating to stress response: examination of a survey of occupational stress / 日本プライマリ・ケア連合学会誌

 In recent years, workers have shown a tendency to suffer increasing amounts of stress, and over 60% claim to feel much anxiety towards their jobs. Problems of psychological health are having an increasing impact on workers, their families and their communities. Furthermore, regular health checks are uncovering health problems in more workers each year, indicating an urgent need for measures to promote psychological and physical health. The aim of our research was to assess current job-related lifestyle behaviors, eating behaviors and stress response and to examine the relationships between them. In August 2006, 980 employees from retail business Company A were given self-assessment surveys (response rate: 63.7%). Excluding those which were left mostly incomplete, a total of 624 usable responses were received and examined. Examination of the relationships between stress response and various lifestyle behaviors showed significant correlations of stress response with eating behavior, exercise and body image satisfaction. The variables that had high correlations with psychological stress responses were psychological workload, interpersonal relations at work, relationship with superiors, lifestyle satisfaction, cognitive restraint and emotional eating. On the other hand, the variables whose correlations with physical stress response were high were psychological workload, amount degree of skill use, lifestyle satisfaction, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating. Not only is there a need for behavior modification support to improve lifestyle behaviors, but assistance for increasing support from superiors in the workplace is also essential for stress management. In addition to the clear need for effective supervisor training, various long-term education and consultation programs for employees and their families should also be considered.