Designing a test battery for workers' well-being: the first wave of the Tsukuba Salutogenic Occupational Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, there has been a diversification of working styles. The concept of workers' well-being is no longer limited to material wealth, such as how satisfied they are with their wages. Psychological enrichment, encompassing factors like motivation and interpersonal relationships, is also important. This study was established to develop a scale to evaluate the well-being of workers, named the Abundance Index for Workers (AIW). This new concept proposed by the authors comprehensively considers both job-related resources and personal and societal resources. METHODS: This study was carried out as part of the Tsukuba Salutogenic Occupational Cohort Study (T-SOCS). We utilized data from a survey targeting workers affiliated with institutions under the Tsukuba Science City Network, examining aspects of their daily life, work, and mental health. The deviation scores for each survey item were averaged to calculate an overall score. The correlations of the comprehensive score with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) index for depression and the Single-item Presenteeism Question (SPQ) index for presenteeism were analyzed to determine criterion-related validity. RESULTS: The number of participants analyzed was 2,745. Factor analysis categorized the data into three factors: workplace mental health, societal resources, and lifestyle habits. Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.688. There were correlations of -0.363 (p < 0.001) between the total score and SPQ, and -0.558 (p < 0.001) between the total score and PHQ-9, suggesting a degree of criterion-related validity. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we designed a test battery that assesses workers' well-being based on job-related resources and the richness of societal resources. The internal consistency of this battery was not as high as expected due to the broad scope of well-being. Although it is difficult to evaluate workers' well-being on a single scale, we believe that the AIW functions well as a test battery by combining scales with different attributes, which enables well-being to be captured from as many different perspectives as possible. This tool is designed to assist individuals in evaluating their own well-being and recognizing factors that can enhance it. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Not applicable; this study is not an intervention trial.

Two-Year-Span Breast Cancer Screening Uptake in Japan after the COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Association with the COVID-19 Vaccination.

There is limited information on whether the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with decreased breast cancer screening uptake and if COVID-19 vaccination was associated with an increase in screening uptake. Our study explored the uptake of breast cancer screening in Japan after the COVID-19 pandemic and assessed its association with the COVID-19 vaccination. We analyzed data from the Japan COVID-19 and Society Internet Survey (JACSIS), a web-based prospective cohort survey, and we included 6110 women without cancer history who were aged 40 to 74 years that participated in the 2012 and 2022 surveys. We examined the regular breast cancer screening uptake before and after the pandemic and employed a multivariable Poisson regression model to seek any association between COVID-19 vaccination and screening uptake. Of 6110, 38.2% regularly participated in screening before the pandemic and 46.9% did so after the pandemic. Individuals unvaccinated due to health reasons (incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.47, 95% CI: 0.29-0.77, p = 0.003) and for other reasons (IRR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.62-0.86, p < 0.001) were less likely to undergo screening compared to fully vaccinated individuals. There was no long-term decrease in breast cancer screening uptake after the pandemic in Japan. Vaccination was linked to increased uptake, but there was no dose relationship.

A high sense of coherence can mitigate suicidal ideation associated with insomnia.

BACKGROUND: The present study aimed to investigate whether insomnia is associated with suicidal ideation (SI) among Japanese workers by conducting a multi-level analysis with sense of coherence (SOC) as a random effect. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 19,481 workers in Tsukuba, Japan. Data from 7,175 participants aged 20-65 years were included in the analysis. The Athens Insomnia Scale (AIS) was used as the independent variable, and SI over the past year was used as the dependent variable. SOC was measured using the five-point SOC-13 scale, and socioeconomic and health factors were investigated as covariates. Participants were divided into three groups (low, medium, and high) based on their SOC scores. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was performed to calculate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). RESULTS: In the high-SOC group, only one person had SI. In a multi-level logistic analysis that excluded the high SOC group, insomnia was found to be associated with SI (OR = 2.26, 95% CI [1.75, 2.93]). Furthermore, the AIS sub-items "Final awakening earlier than desired" (OR = 1.26, 95% CI [1.05, 1.50]) and "Sense of well-being during the day" (OR = 1.63, 95% CI [1.34, 1.99]) were associated with SI. 8.95% or 11% of the variation in the presence or absence of SI was found to be explained by differences between SOC groups. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights that insomnia is associated with SI, and that high SOC may reduce SI even under insomnia. Future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm whether high SOC reduces SI due to insomnia.