The National Hospital Organization Kumamoto Medical Center has conducted a group training course for health care workers (HCW) from developing countries on viral hepatitis and its related diseases in ...cooperation with the Japan International Cooperation Agency, for 30 years. In the first 10 years, the course included acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATL), and hepatitis. Following the discovery of the hepatitis C virus and the genotype of the hepatitis B virus, and development of treatments for hepatitis, viral-related cirrhosis, and cancer, the course was divided into two courses. In 2015, the hepatitis training course was renewed as the "Comprehensive Countermeasure for Virus Hepatitis", which ended its role in February 2018. Between 1998 and 2017, 175 HCW from 43 countries, including 36 participants from Egypt, participated. Between October 11 and 20, 2019, we conducted a follow-up survey of the results of the training and conducted a field visit on hepatitis control in Egypt.
Background
Despite known beneficial effects of social support on cardiovascular health, the pathway through which sources of support (supervisor, coworkers, family/friends) influence inflammatory ...markers is not completely understood.
Purpose
We investigated the independent and moderating associations between social support and inflammatory markers.
Methods
A total of 137 male white-collar employees underwent a blood draw for measurement of high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α), monocyte and leukocyte counts, and completed a questionnaire on social support.
Results
Multivariable linear regression analyses controlling for covariates revealed that supervisor support was inversely associated with IL-6 (
β
= −0.24,
p
< 0.01) while coworker support was marginally associated with TNF-α (
β
= −0.16,
p
< 0.10). Support from family/friends was not associated with inflammatory markers.
Conclusion
Social support from the immediate supervisor may be a potential mechanism through which social support exerts beneficial effects on inflammatory markers in working men.
Purpose:
There is a growing body of evidence that the built environment influences diet and exercise and, as a consequence, community health status. Since long-haul truck drivers spend long periods ...of time at truck stops, it is important to know if this built environment includes resources that contribute to the emotional and physical well-being of drivers.
Setting:
The truck stop environment was defined as the truck stop itself, grocery stores, and medical clinics near the truck stop that could be accessed by a large truck or safely on foot.
Design:
Researchers at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed and utilized a checklist to record the availability of resources for personal hygiene and comfort, communication and mental stimulation, health care, safety, physical activity, and nutrition at truck stops.
Subjects:
The NIOSH checklist was used to collect data at a convenience sample of 16 truck stops throughout the United States along both high-flow and low-flow truck traffic routes.
Measures:
The checklist was completed by observation within and around the truck stops.
Results:
No truck stops offered exercise facilities, 94% lacked access to health care, 81% lacked a walking path, 50% lacked fresh fruit, and 37% lacked fresh vegetables in their restaurant or convenience store.
Conclusion:
The NIOSH found that most truck stops did not provide an overall healthy living environment.
A number of companies publish corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting in booklets and other publicly available formats. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the nine-year (2004-2012) trend ...of occupational safety and health (OSH) activities as described in CSR reporting (by industry sector and company size).
We investigated CSR reporting on the website in all Japanese companies listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The data were extracted from CSR reporting of each company every year from 2004 to 2012. We counted the pages dedicated to information on OSH activities by industry sector and company size and calculated the rate of OSH divided by total CSR-related activities.
The number of companies publishing CSR reports increased in all industry sectors, although the rate of inclusion of OSH activity within CSR reports increased only among sectors such as construction, manufacturing, transportation, and commerce. Among all company size, CSR reporting increased constantly throughout all observed years. The proportion of companies that had described OSH in CSR reporting increased from 2004 to 2012, and 76.5% companies had described OSH activities in 2012. The average number of pages of CSR-related report was 34.2 in 2004, increasing to 43.1 in 2012. The proportion of described pages of OSH activities in total CSR reporting increased gradually, and 2.7% in 2012. The focus of CSR reporting gradually shifted from 'environment' to 'social activity including OSH'.
Majority of companies are putting more emphasis on OSH in CSR reporting in Japan.
Nurse practitioners (NPs) provide medical care equivalent to that of physicians and facilitate access to healthcare. Although Japan's first NP graduated in 2010, how Japanese expert NPs work ...effectively in clinical contexts is yet to be investigated. We aimed to identify the competencies that make expert NPs in Japan effective. Twelve Japanese expert NPs were purposely selected. The average age of the participants was 44.8 years, average NP experience was 7.5 years, and eight participants were women. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online from March to May 2021. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis revealed five themes: working in physicians' contexts, interprofessional collaboration, involvement in nurses' work, contribution to healthcare, and personal qualities for effective working. Japanese expert NPs can function effectively in clinical settings by flexibly and humbly collaborating with other medical professionals who have autonomous positions. They can improve the quality of healthcare by proposing practical solutions to problems faced by patients and medical organizations. These explored competencies can be applied to other aging and more complex societal contexts, and in updating the required competencies of Japanese NPs.
Purpose
Evidence on the association between psychological well-being and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels is limited. We carried out a prospective study to investigate the ...association between work engagement and hs-CRP levels in a group of Japanese workers.
Methods
Our cohort included 1,857 men and 657 women aged 65 and under, and free from major illness, working at two manufacturing worksites in Japan. Baseline examinations were conducted from April to June 2011 to determine the demographic and lifestyle characteristics and levels of work engagement. Blood samples were obtained from participants at baseline and after 1 year. Participants were classified into tertiles of low, moderate, and high work engagement at baseline. Hs-CRP levels were split into low (≤3.0 mg/L) and high (>3.0 mg/L). We used multiple logistic regression analyses to evaluate the association between work engagement at baseline and hs-CRP levels at follow-up, adjusting for hs-CRP at baseline and potential confounding factors.
Results
Participants reporting moderate and high levels of work engagement at baseline had significantly lower odds ratios (ORs) of having high hs-CRP levels at follow-up than those with low levels of work engagement at baseline OR of moderate level 0.44, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.24–0.81; OR of high level 0.57, 95 % CI 0.33–0.99;
p
for trend <0.05.
Conclusion
Findings suggest that work engagement has beneficial effects on workers’ cardiovascular health.
The present study examined the association between workaholism, the tendency to work excessively hard in a compulsive fashion, and sleep problems among Japanese nurses. A cross-sectional survey was ...conducted among 600 nurses from 2 university hospitals in Japan using a self-reported questionnaire on workaholism, sleep, job-related variables (i.e., job demands, job control, and worksite support), and demographic variables. A total of 394 nurses returned the questionnaire (response rate=65.7%) and complete data from 312 female nurses were used for analyses (final coverage rate=52.0%). Workaholics, as measured using the Japanese version of the Dutch Workaholism Scale, were defined as those having high scores on both the "work excessively" and "work compulsively" subscales. Logistic regression analyses revealed that workaholics had higher risks for sleep problems in terms of subjective sleep insufficiency, excessive daytime sleepiness at work, difficulty awakening in the morning, and feeling tired when waking up in the morning (odds ratios OR of 4.40, 3.18, 3.48, and 4.61, respectively, p<0.05). These remained significant even after adjusting for demographic and job-related variables (OR 3.41, 5.36, 2.56, and 2.77, respectively). However, no significant associations were found between workaholism and insomnia symptoms. These results suggest that workaholic nurses had higher risks for impaired awakening, insufficient sleep, and workplace sleepiness.
Nurse practitioners (NPs) are known as effective healthcare providers worldwide. In Japan, nurse practitioner adoption is considered to be in a shaky period. Although nurse practitioners were ...introduced approximately 10 years ago at the initiative of educational institutions in Japan, the full extent of this trend is not known. Therefore, we have clarified the whole picture of nurse practitioners from two directions: the perception of nurse practitioners in Japan and the perception of physicians who work with nurse practitioners. This will inform discussions regarding the recruitment of nurse practitioners at the national level in Japan.
From 18 June to 24 July 2021, we administered a nationwide cross-sectional survey of NPs and physicians working in the same clinical settings as NPs in Japan. The domains of the survey included "scope and content of work", "perceptions of NPs' clinical practice", and "individual clinical practice characteristics". The survey was distributed and collected digitally.
The total number of respondents to the survey was 281, including 169 NPs and 112 physicians; the percentage of NPs who responded was 50.5%. The number of valid responses was 164 NPs and 111 physicians, for a total of 275 respondents. Approximately 60% of NPs are concentrated in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, and the three prefectures adjacent to Tokyo. They also worked fewer hours per week, cared for fewer patients per day, and earned less money than physicians. More physicians than NPs indicated that "more NPs would improve the quality of care". A total of 90.1% of physicians and 82.3% of NPs agreed that "Nurse practitioners should practice to the full extent of their education and training," and 73.9% of physicians and 81.7% of NPs agreed that "Nurse practitioners' scope of practice should be uniformly defined at a national level".
This study clarified the present working conditions of NPs from NPs' and physicians' perspectives in Japanese contexts. Japanese NPs may be able to work effectively in collaboration with physicians. Therefore, the implementation of NPs in Japanese medical conditions should be discussed further for better healthcare.
Although a single-item job satisfaction measure has been shown to be reliable and inclusive as multiple-item scales in relation to health, studies including immunological data are few. The purpose of ...this study was to evaluate the validity of single-item job and family life satisfaction based on its association with immune indices. A total of 189 white-collar employees (70% men) underwent a blood draw for the measurement of natural killer (NK), total T, and B cell counts as well as plasma immunoglobulin (Ig) G concentrations and completed single-item job and family life satisfaction measures, respectively. The response options for satisfaction measures were ‘dissatisfied’ (coded 1) to ‘satisfied’ (coded 4). Spearman’s partial correlations controlling for cofactors revealed that increased job satisfaction was positively associated with NK cells (rsp=0.201, p=0.007) and IgG (rsp=0.178, p=0.018), while family life satisfaction was unrelated to immune indices. Those who reported a combination of low job/low family life satisfaction had significantly lower NK and higher B cell counts than those with a high job/high family life satisfaction. Our study suggests that the single-item summary measure of job satisfaction, but not family life satisfaction, may be a valid tool to evaluate immune status in healthy white-collar employees.
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