Health-related behaviors associated with subjective sleep insufficiency in Japanese workers: A cross-sectional study.

OBJECTIVES: Sleep disturbances are related to somatic and mental disorders, industrial accidents, absenteeism, and retirement because of disability. We aimed to identify health-related behaviors associated with subjective sleep insufficiency in Japanese workers. METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 5,297 employees (mean age: 43.6±11.3 years; 4,039 men). Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify health-related behaviors associated with subjective sleep insufficiency. RESULTS: Overall, 28.2% of participants experienced subjective sleep insufficiency. There was a significant difference between the genders in the proportion of participants with subjective sleep insufficiency (male: 26.4%; female: 34.3%; p<0.001). Multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that being a female or ≥40 years, experiencing a weight change of ≥3 kg during the preceding year, not exercising regularly, not walking quickly, and eating a late-evening or fourth meal were associated with subjective sleep insufficiency. After stratifying by gender, age ≥40 years, not exercising regularly, and eating a late-evening or fourth meal were significantly associated with subjective sleep insufficiency in both genders. Not walking quickly, experiencing a weight change, and eating quickly were positively associated with subjective sleep insufficiency only for males. Females who did not engage in physical activity were more likely to have experienced subjective sleep insufficiency, but this relationship was not observed in males. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that certain health-related behaviors, specifically not exercising regularly and nocturnal eating habits, were associated with subjective sleep insufficiency in a group of Japanese workers.

[Educational effectiveness of a group health education program in the workplace and an examination of educational methods to promote behavior modification].

BACKGROUND: It is well-known that health education programs carried out in the work place are useful for employees' health promotion. However, the effectiveness of group health education programs for workers as a population approach is unclear. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a group health education program in the workplace, and to investigate educational methods which support workers modifying their health behaviors. METHODS: A total of 289 workers who received a group health education program in the manufacturing industry (mean age, 42.1 ± 11.3 years old; 175 males and 114 females) were enrolled in this study. The group health education program was carried out to educate the subjects about periodontitis, oral health actions and lifestyle behaviors to prevent oral diseases. Participants were required to fill out a self-administered questionnaire which included information about oral health knowledge, oral health actions, lifestyle behaviors and symptoms of periodontitis before, immediately after and one month after the education. We used McNemar's test for the paired comparison of questionnaire responses. The relation between acquiring knowledge about periodontitis and subjects' modification of oral health action, behavior modification and symptoms of periodontitis were examined using the chi-squared test. The relationships of knowledge retention about periodontitis, the modification of the oral health actions and lifestyle behaviors (i.e., cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking and eating between meals), were examined with participants' characteristics (i.e., age, gender and occupational category) using Fisher's exact test. RESULTS: Knowledge about periodontitis significantly improved immediately after receiving the health education, and this effect of education was evident one month later. However, not all of the knowledge was sufficiently retained one month after the education session. The proportion of participants undertaking desirable oral health actions significantly increased one month after the education, whereas lifestyle behaviors did not alter. The modification of oral health actions improved periodontitis-related symptoms, however, no relationship was found between knowledge acquisition and behavior modification. The characteristics of the participants did not influence knowledge retention about periodontitis or modification of oral health actions. CONCLUSIONS: Our group health education program was appropriate and effective at providing knowledge about periodontitis and at modifying oral health actions. We should identify factors that obstruct workers behavior modification, and eliminate them to improve health behaviors.