Factors Related to Mental Health of Foreign Care Workers in Long-Term Care Facilities in Japan during the COVID-19 Pandemic-A Comparative Study.

This study aimed to evaluate the factors related to the mental health of foreign care workers in Japan's long-term care (LTC) facilities and compare their results with those of native care workers. We conducted a cross-sectional survey covering 80 LTC facilities across Japan between August and November 2021. The survey mainly included mental health, workload, reward, sense of coherence, loneliness, COVID-19-specific factors and sociodemographic variables. The results show that workload was a distinct feature associated with the mental health of foreign care workers (n = 172) when compared with those of native care workers (n = 154). In addition, we found that the relationship between cultural adaptation and mental health in a sample of foreign care workers was mediated by loneliness and sense of coherence (SOC). Finally, we found that reward, loneliness, SOC, and COVID-19-specific factors had significant impacts on the mental health of both foreign and native care workers. These findings highlight the importance of support measures from the workplace for foreign care workers. Workplace interventions that focus on workload, reward, and sense of coherence strategies are required to address mental health improvement and may still be of value in dealing with the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Lifestyle changes as a result of COVID-19 containment measures: Bodyweight and glycemic control in patients with diabetes in the Japanese declaration of a state of emergency.

To clarify the association between lifestyle changes as a result of coronavirus disease 2019 containment measures and changes in metabolic and glycemic status in patients with diabetes, a cross-sectional, single-center, observation study was carried out. A self-reported questionnaire was provided to ascertain the frequency of various lifestyle activities before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 containment measures in Japan. Among 463 patients, change in glycated hemoglobin was significantly associated with change in bodyweight. After stratification by age 65 years, binary logistic regression analysis showed that increased frequency of snack eating increased bodyweight (odds ratio 1.709, P = 0.007) and glycated hemoglobin (odds ratio 1.420, P = 0.025) in the younger group, whereas in the older patients, reduced walking activities resulted in weight gain (odds ratio 0.726, P = 0.010). In conclusion, changes in eating behavior and physical activity increased bodyweight and reduced glycemic control among diabetes patients, but by different processes depending on age under the coronavirus disease 2019 containment measures in Japan.