Relationship between duration of sick leave and time variation of words used in return-to-work programs for depression.

BACKGROUND: Return-to-work (RTW) programs are provided as rehabilitation for people who have taken sick leave from work because of mental health problems. However, methods to present this information to workplaces objectively remain limited. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to conduct an exploratory investigation of the relationship between duration of sick leave and time variation of words used in RTW programs for depression from textual data collected from electronic medical records as a new evaluation indicator. METHODS: The study subjects were those who had taken sick leave because of major depressive or adjustment disorder and had participated in an RTW program. The study data comprised demographic characteristics and texts. Textual data were collected from electronic medical records and classified based on the SOAP note. Thereafter, the textual data were quantified into category scores based on a standard text analysis dictionary. A generalized linear mixed model was used for the statistical analysis, with the score for each category (emotional, social, cognitive, perceptual, biological, motivational, relativity, and informal) as the dependent variable and the duration of sick leave, time, and interaction between the duration of sick leave and time as the independent variables. The level of statistical significance was set at 0.05. RESULTS: In total, 42 participants were included in the analysis. The results revealed a significant interaction between the social (p = 0.001) and emotional (p = 0.002) categories. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest a relationship between word changes in electronic medical records and the duration of sick leave.

Gender differences in psychosocial factors related to severe stress in a construction company in Japan.

BACKGROUND: In Japan, women's participation in the workforce has been increasing. However, there are few studies about gender differences in stress factors in the workplace. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to clarify gender differences in psychosocial factors in the workplace related to severe stress. METHODS: In total, 930 male and 339 female employees working in a construction company in Japan participated in this study. We used individual responses to the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) conducted by their company for the most recent year between 2016 and 2019. Data were categorized by gender, and we extracted the factors contributing to severe stress using logistic regression. RESULTS: We identified 142 men and 32 women who had severe stress. Logistic regression analysis showed that six factors ("Qualitative job overload", "Job control", "Interpersonal conflict", "Poor physical environment", "Supervisor's support", and "Job satisfaction and life satisfaction") were significantly associated with the presence of severe stress in men. In women, five factors ("Qualitative job overload", "Job control", "Interpersonal conflict", "Suitable work", and "Job satisfaction and life satisfaction") showed a significant association with severe stress. CONCLUSION: Factors associated with severe stress were "Poor physical environment" and "Supervisor's support" in men, and "Suitable work" in women.