The health effects of work-family conflict in men and women Japanese civil servants: a longitudinal study.

High level of work-family conflict (WFC) is an important risk factor for stress-related health outcomes. However, many studies are cross-sectional studies. In this study, we aimed to clarify how changes in WFC levels over a period 5 yr can affect workers' mental and physical health, and to clarify whether there are gender differences of them. This study examined 1,808 civil servants (1,258 men and 550 women) aged 20-65 yr working in a local government in the west coast of Japan from 2003 to 2008. Logistic regression analyses were used to examine whether the change in WFC contributes to workers' health problems and whether there are gender differences. This study revealed association sustained high WFC and deterioration of WFC conflict with poor mental health and poor job satisfaction for both men and women. In men high WFC conflict and deterioration was associated with poor mental health (OR=2.74). On the other hand, women had strong relationship between WFC changes and poor physical health (OR=2.64). WFC was an important factor as a social determinant of health of Japanese civil servants, and the change in WFC affects subsequent health problems with different trends in men and women.

Spa resort use and health-related quality of life, sleep, sickness absence and hospital admission: the Japanese civil servants study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether spa resort use is associated with the health of Japanese employees. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. PARTICIPANTS: 3341 employees (2280 males and 1061 females) aged 20-65 in local government in Japan. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The physical and mental component summary scores (PCS and MCS) of the Short Form 36 (SF-36), sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), sickness leave (> or =7 days in the previous year), and hospital admission in the previous year. RESULT: The PCS and MCS increased with the frequency of spa resort use in men and women. Less frequent use was associated with poor sleep quality for men and women and sickness leave for men. There was no significant relationship between use frequency and hospital admission. CONCLUSIONS: Spa resort use may have beneficial effects on physical and particularly mental health. Longitudinal research is necessary to clarify the causality.