Association between forest and greenspace walking and stress-coping skills among workers of Tsukuba Science City, Japan: A cross-sectional study.

Objectives: Recently, "sense of coherence" (SOC) as a concept of stress-coping, has been gaining considerable attention. Although many studies have investigated the factors related to strong SOC, we found little evidence about the associations between SOC and habits that are easy to perform in everyday life. The aim our study was to examine the prevalence of workers who engage in forest walking and greenspace walking and examine their association with SOC score. Study design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: An anonymous, self-report web questionnaire was conducted in November 2017. The study population included 19481 workers belonging to the Tsukuba Science City Network and data of 6466 participants (3965 men and 2501 women) were analyzed. Results: The percentage of participants who engage in forest and greenspace walking at least once a year were 55.9% and 75.9%, respectively. Associations between forest/greenspace walking and SOC score were calculated using Chi-squared tests. Multinomial logistic regression analyses with SOC score group (strong/middle/weak) as a dependent variable and forest/greenspace walking as explanatory variables were performed. Statistically significant positive associations were observed between strong SOC and those who engaged in forest/greenspace walking after adjusting for socioeconomic factors. The odds ratios for strong SOC were 3.65 (95% CI â€‹= â€‹1.70-7.85) for forest walking at least once a week and 2.12 for greenspace walking (95% CI â€‹= â€‹1.54-2.92) at least once a week. Conclusions: Our findings suggested that forest/greenspace walking may enhance workers' stress-coping skills.

Association between altered systemic inflammatory interleukin-1beta and natural killer cell activity and subsequently agitation in patients with Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVE: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that is the most common cause of dementia in the elderly and is frequently accompanied by emotional disorder, including agitation. Although evidence of neuroendocrine immune and inflammatory functions during emotional changes has been accumulated, the pathogenic mechanisms in the development of agitation accompanied by AD remain to be elucidated. METHODS: To clarify the involvement of neuroendocrine and immune and inflammatory systems in agitation in AD, we examined agitation levels, circadian rhythms of behavior, cortisol, interleukin-1beta (IL-1beta), and natural killer cell activity (NKCA) in controls without dementia and 16 AD patients who were recognized to be easily agitated in their nursing homes. These behavioral and blood indicators were assessed according to the progress of the stage of agitation in 16 AD patients (stable, pre-agitation, and agitation stages). RESULTS: Elevations in night behavior and blood cortisol, IL-1beta and an reduced blood NKCA level in the evening were observed not only in the agitation stage, but also when stable in AD patients as compared to the control. Increased IL-1beta and decreased NKCA occurred in both the morning and evening in pre-agitation and agitation stages in AD. CONCLUSIONS: The increased IL-1beta and decreased NKCA with the progress of agitation in AD suggest that inflammation produces agitation and aggravates AD.

Mental health of scientific researchers. I. Characteristics of job stress among scientific researchers working at a research park in Japan.

In order to clarify the characteristics of job stress in scientific researchers, a self-administered questionnaire survey for 16,330 workers was carried out at Tsukuba Research Park City, Japan. The data of 7,063 (43%) workers aged 20-59 years old were analyzed, and the characteristics of job stress in 3,290 scientific researchers were compared with those of 1,799 technicians and 1,849 clerks. The researchers perceived higher quantitative and qualitative workload, greater job control (job decision latitude), and greater reward from work, than did the other two job groups. In addition, young male researchers received a large amount of support from their coworkers, while middle-aged male researchers perceived difficulty in personal relationships with their coworkers. From the viewpoints of the demand-control-support model and the effort-reward imbalance model, the researchers, particularly men, were typically occupied in active jobs, and the large amount of effort required for their work seemed to be balanced by greater reward from work. Compared with male researchers, however, female researchers perceived lesser job demand, lesser job control, and lesser reward from work. The working environment of female researchers may be related to the so-called career stress of working women. The mental health status of these scientific researchers should be examined directly in a future study.