Objective Assessment of Physical Activity at Home Using a Novel Floor-Vibration Monitoring System: Validation and Comparison With Wearable Activity Trackers and Indirect Calorimetry Measurements.

BACKGROUND: The self-monitoring of physical activity is an effective strategy for promoting active lifestyles. However, accurately assessing physical activity remains challenging in certain situations. This study evaluates a novel floor-vibration monitoring system to quantify housework-related physical activity. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to assess the validity of step-count and physical behavior intensity predictions of a novel floor-vibration monitoring system in comparison with the actual number of steps and indirect calorimetry measurements. The accuracy of the predictions is also compared with that of research-grade devices (ActiGraph GT9X). METHODS: The Ocha-House, located in Tokyo, serves as an independent experimental facility equipped with high-sensitivity accelerometers installed on the floor to monitor vibrations. Dedicated data processing software was developed to analyze floor-vibration signals and calculate 3 quantitative indices: floor-vibration quantity, step count, and moving distance. In total, 10 participants performed 4 different housework-related activities, wearing ActiGraph GT9X monitors on both the waist and wrist for 6 minutes each. Concurrently, floor-vibration data were collected, and the energy expenditure was measured using the Douglas bag method to determine the actual intensity of activities. RESULTS: Significant correlations (P<.001) were found between the quantity of floor vibrations, the estimated step count, the estimated moving distance, and the actual activity intensities. The step-count parameter extracted from the floor-vibration signal emerged as the most robust predictor (r2=0.82; P<.001). Multiple regression models incorporating several floor-vibration-extracted parameters showed a strong association with actual activity intensities (r2=0.88; P<.001). Both the step-count and intensity predictions made by the floor-vibration monitoring system exhibited greater accuracy than those of the ActiGraph monitor. CONCLUSIONS: Floor-vibration monitoring systems seem able to produce valid quantitative assessments of physical activity for selected housework-related activities. In the future, connected smart home systems that integrate this type of technology could be used to perform continuous and accurate evaluations of physical behaviors throughout the day.

Becoming a parent: Trajectories of family division of labor in Germany and the United States.

The transition to parenthood represents a turning point shaping couples' arrangements for paid work and housework. Previous studies often examined these changes in isolation, rather than as interrelated trajectories reflecting diverse models of family division of labor. Drawing on data from different-sex couples from the 1984-2019 Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the 1984-2020 German Socio-Economic Panel, this study uses multichannel sequence analysis to identify four and three patterned constellations of family division of labor in the United States and Germany, respectively. These constellations differ in women's and men's respective contributions to household earnings and their relative participation in housework, spanning from one year before to ten years after the birth of a first child. National differences are found in the identified constellations, their prevalence, and the role of couples' conjoint education in shaping these constellations. In both countries, couples in which the husband has an educational advantage are most likely to transition to a traditional arrangement. However, only in the U.S. do couples with both partners holding a college degree also tend to enter a traditional arrangement. Furthermore, among U.S. couples in which the wife has an educational advantage, they are most likely to adopt a partly egalitarian arrangement (equal earnings but not housework) upon becoming parents.

Changes in University Hospital Physicians' Work and Family Lives Following Outsourcing of Housework Cleaning Tasks.

Background: Japan is reviewing how physicians operate and plans to implement a work-style reform for physicians in 2024. This study examined how outsourcing housework cleaning tasks changed the daily lives of university hospital physicians. Methods: A total of 18 physicians participated in the study, outsourcing cleaning tasks either once or thrice. Results: Fourteen out of 18 respondents reported a decrease in the burden of household chores. Additionally, 10 respondents reported having more time for family contact, and nine respondents reported having more time for their own hobbies and diversions. Meanwhile, only five respondents reported that they had more time to work. Conclusion: Outsourcing housework cleaning tasks and using the newly created time for family and self may improve work performance.

Can home labor education boost teenagers' academic performance? A Comparative analysis.

Labor education is an important part of the overall development of teenagers in terms of morality, intelligence, physical fitness and aesthetics. Family labor education should play a fundamental role in labor education. Previous empirical studies on the influence of family labor education on teenagers' academic performance are not comprehensive enough. In particular, there is still much room for improvement in terms of the authority of the data, the appropriateness of the methodology and the precision of the analyses. This study analyzes the relationship between housework and teenagers' academic performance through the data of the China Education Panel Survey (CEPS), based on the theory of "Embodied Cognition", using OLS regression, propensity score matching (PSM), quantile regression and probit regression. The results show that housework is effective in improving teenagers' academic performance; participation in housework had the strongest impact on teenagers with middle and lower academic performance; however, the effect of housework on the academic performance of academic excellence students was not as strong; and addiction to online games was the main factor that prevented teenagers from participating in housework.

Doing housework and having regular daily routine standing out as factors associate with physical function in the older people.

Background and objectives: Nationwide data were used to explore factors associated with physical function in order to identify interventions that could improve and maintain physical function in the older people. Methods: The physical function was assessed by gait speed (GS). We selected 2,677 male and 2,668 female older adults (aged ≥60) who could perform the GS test as study subjects. GS was measured by having subjects walk across and back a 10-m course. A gait speed less than 20% that of a reference population (<0.7 m/s) was used as the definition of slow gait speed (SGS). Co-morbidity, polypharmacy, medical expenses, need for care, and hospitalization were used to evaluate health status. A stepwise logistic regression model was used to determine factors associated with SGS. Results: SGS was associated with poorer health status, higher medical cost, lower ranking on the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and decreased Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE). Co-morbidity (OR = 1.81, 1.58-2.07), polypharmacy (OR = 1.47, 1.25-1.74), MMSE <24 (OR = 1.85, 1.54-2.22), and GDS ≥ 11 (OR = 1.40, 1.18-1.65) were associated with SGS. In contrast, doing housework (DHW, OR = 0.43, 0.38-0.49), having a regular daily routine (RDR, OR = 0.64, 0.45-0.91), and current alcohol consumption (OR = 0.74, 0.62-0.90) were inversely associated with SGS. DHW plus having RDR could greatly reduce the risk of SGS (OR = 0.29, 0.19-0.43). Conclusion: Poor physical function is associated with poorer health status in Chinese older people. Maintaining a regular daily routine and doing some housework may be important factors that can help older people preserve their physical function.

The effect of housework, psychosocial stress and residential environment on musculoskeletal disorders for Chinese women.

Historically, discussions of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) have focused on paid work factors. However, the relation between housework (unpaid work) and MSDs for women is important. Little is known about the relationship between housework and MSDs and how this relationship can be influenced by physical environment factors and psychosocial stress, as well as other individual characteristics. Therefore, this study proposed a model to disentangle interactions between housework, residential indoor environment, psychosocial stress and MSDs for women, using the structural equation modeling approach, based on the cross-sectional data in the Central Plain of China. Model results showed housework (0.23) and psychosocial stress (0.44) were risk factors for the development of MSDs, while indoor environmental satisfaction (-0.27) was the protective factor for MSDs. Moreover, housework had a significant effect on psychosocial stress (0.20) while indoor environment satisfaction showed negative effect on psychosocial stress (-0.22). Furthermore, multiple group analysis suggested individual characteristics, including age, BMI, education, length of residence, household size and floor area, could change the strength of relationships in the model. This paper formulated and validated a model to define interactions between housework, residential indoor environment, psychosocial stress and MSDs for women, which would help improve knowledge on impact of housework on MSDs.

Socioeconomic characteristics and domestic work as correlates of family satisfaction in Hong Kong mothers of young children.

BACKGROUND: Family life satisfaction is an important contributor to the mental health of mothers with young children, who are particularly vulnerable to various sources of stressors. However, there is a dearth of studies on this topic in this demographic, the determinants of which likely differ across geographical and cultural contexts. We examined indicators of maternal socioeconomic status (SES) and domestic help as correlates of family satisfaction in Hong Kong mothers of young children. METHODS: Mothers (N = 322) of young children (3-5 years old) were recruited from neighbourhoods stratified by SES and population density. They self-completed a survey containing items on socio-demographics, SES characteristics (including household income and maternal education and employment status), maternal family satisfaction and division of domestic work in the household and family. Confounder-adjusted associations of maternal SES indicators and participation in housework and childcare activities by various agents (e.g., mother, spouse, other residents) were estimated. We also estimated the moderating effects of household income on the associations between maternal employment and family satisfaction, and those of maternal employment on the associations between domestic work division and family satisfaction. RESULTS: Household income and maternal education were positively related to maternal family satisfaction. Mothers in part-time employment had lower family satisfaction than non-working mothers and mothers working full-time. The latter reported higher family satisfaction than non-working mothers only if their household income was below HK$ 15,000. Domestic work performed by non-residents was predictive of higher family satisfaction, while mothers' housework and child(ren) tutoring were predictive of lower family satisfaction. Only part-time employed mothers benefited from spouse's assistance with domestic work. The interaction effects of maternal employment status on the associations between the division of child tutoring and family satisfaction were complex. CONCLUSIONS: In Hong Kong, mothers of young children with lower education and household income, who hold a part-time job and participate in housework and child tutoring activities have the lowest levels of family satisfaction and, hence, are at higher risk of mental health problems. Spouses' and non-resident family members' participation in domestic work, as well as the establishment of more family-friendly employment practices, may help mitigate this risk. TRIAL REGISTRATION: N/A.

Patterns of housework performance in the United States before, during, and after the Great Recession.

Housework is a key area of research across many academic fields as it represents the intersection of micro- and macro-level gender dynamics. Despite many shifts in both women's and men's economic activities, and men's changing gender beliefs, women remain largely responsible for the management and performance of domestic labor. Given the relationship between paid employment and household work, this research describes patterns of women's and men's housework before, during, and after the Great Recession. Using American Time Use Survey data, I perform latent profile analysis to document the distributions of housework tasks and time for women and men across these three time periods. While women perform the majority of housework across the time frame, women and men converge in their time during the Recession. Further, men's time becomes more varied and more similar to women's Post-Recession. The findings in this research brief highlight the connections between macro-level change and micro-level behavior.

Association between housework and the risk of dementia among older Chinese adults: a prospective cohort study.

Objectives: Physical activity (PA) is known to improve physical functioning and mental health and to reduce the incidence of dementia. However, studies of the effects of non-recreational PA on the incidence of dementia, especially in East Asian populations, remain limited. In this study, we evaluate the association of doing housework with the risk of dementia among participants in the Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS). Methods: The analysis was conducted with data from 7,237 CLHLS participants age over 65 obtained in 2008/2009, 2011/2012, 2014, and 2018. The frequency of housework performance was classified into four groups. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to examine the association of the baseline housework frequency with the incidence of dementia, with adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and lifestyle and health conditions. Results: The adjusted multivariate model showed that the incidence of dementia was lower among participants who did housework almost every day than among those who rarely or never did housework (hazard ratio = 0.49; 95% confidence interval, 0.39-0.61). The subgroup and sensitivity analyses yielded similar results. Conclusion: A high frequency of housework performance was associated with a reduced incidence of dementia among older Chinese adults, especially those who did not exercise regularly. The encouragement of engagement in housework would be a cost-effective measure promoting healthy aging in the Chinese population.

Do men and women really have different gender role attitudes? Experimental insight on gender-specific attitudes toward paid and unpaid work in Germany.

This article uses a novel experimental approach to measure whether men and women actually differ in their gender role attitudes. Recent research has shown that operationalizing gender role attitudes on a unidimensional scale ranging from "egalitarian" to "traditional" is problematic. Instead, their multidimensionality must to be taken into account. Similarly, an ideal measurement tool should consider that gender norms are applied conditionally, i.e., extensive information on the situational context must be provided. In this article, both preconditions are met by using a multifactorial survey experiment. The vignettes used in the survey experiment contain extensive contextual information on fictional couples' division of paid and unpaid work. In addition, the experimental variation of this information (e.g., the vignette persons' gender, the presence and age of children, and the partners' shares of paid and unpaid work) allows to disentangle the different dimensions that may influence (different) gender role attitudes of men and women. Results show no gender difference in attitudes: On average, men and women have "classical" egalitarian gender role attitudes.

Born or not: A moderated mediation model of the relationship between work-family conflict and female employees' wellbeing based on fertility intention during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The previous academic research on work-family conflict mainly focused on the relevant elements in the work field. This study concludes that elements of the family domain have a significant impact on the relationship between work-family conflict and employee wellbeing. Female employees' perceptions of wellbeing largely depend on their willingness to have children when they take on family roles. During COVID-19, employees had more time to fulfill both work and family roles in the family sphere due to the epidemic blockade, the contribution of the female employee's significant other (husband) in family matters had a significant impact on Fertility intention. This study using SPSS 24.0 AMOS 20.0 and M plus 7.4 statistical analysis tools to test the proposed hypotheses. In the paired data of 412 working female employees and husbands of Chinese dual-earner families with different occupational backgrounds, hypothesis testing results support that female employees' work → family conflict is negatively related to female employees' fertility intentions, and female employees' fertility intentions are positively related to wellbeing; female employees' family → work conflict is negatively related to female employees' wellbeing; husband's flexible work stress is negatively related to husband's share of housework; husband's share of housework moderated the front, rear and overall mediating effects by the fertility intention. When formulating policies, the managers should consider not only the direct effects of policies, but also the indirect effects that policies may have on other family members of employees. Managers should develop management policies during an epidemic that are more responsive to the actual needs of employees during an epidemic. The management of female employees should give due consideration to the family status of female employees and the enterprises should recognize the importance of childcare for female employees.

Children of the Revolution: The continued unevenness of the gender revolution in housework, childcare and work time across birth cohorts.

This study investigates whether parents spend different amounts of time in housework, childcare, and employment across birth cohorts. We apply data from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS; 2003-2018) and age-cohort-period models to compare parents' time spent in these activities across three successive birth cohorts: Baby Boomers (1946-1965), Generation X (1966-1980) and Millennials (1981-2000). For housework time, we find no evidence of cohort change for mothers but for fathers, we observe an increase in housework time with each subsequent cohort. For time spent caring for children, we identify a period effect whereby mothers and fathers regardless of which cohort they belong to are spending more time in primary care of children over time. For work time, we find an increase in mothers' contributions across these birth cohorts. But, net of this overall trend, we find Generation X and Millennial mothers are spending less time in employment relative to Baby Boom mothers. Fathers' employment time, by contrast, has not changed across cohorts or over our measured period. Ultimately, we find gender gaps in childcare, housework and employment across cohorts remain suggesting cohort replacement and period effects are inadequate to close gender gaps in housework, childcare and paid employment time.

Double Jeopardy: The Roles of Job Autonomy and Spousal Gender Ideology in Employed Women's Mental Health.

Employed women persistently suffer in mental health despite more family-friendly workplaces. The job demand-control theory argues that employed women's mental health depends on their job autonomy, while sociological research on the gender division of household labor locates the cause in how much they are expected by husbands to contribute to housework. The article integrates the two streams of literature by arguing that employed women's job autonomy and their spousal gender ideology interact to shape their mental health. Using nationally representative household-level panel survey and fixed effects models, the study showed that job autonomy improved employed women's mental health, but the benefits depended on their spousal gender ideologies. Specifically, women suffered a "double jeopardy" in mental health when they lacked job autonomy and had traditional husbands. In contrast, when women's husbands had an egalitarian gender ideology, they enjoyed mental health regardless of job autonomy. In addition, women's self-gender ideology did not predict their own or their husbands' mental health. The results point to a societal-level change in men's gender ideology as a fundamental way to improve employed women's family well-being. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11482-022-10090-8.

Young Children's Housework Participation in Taiwan: Serial Multiple Mediations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate not only the participating in housework but also the parents' attitude and child's preference, in relation to children's health and housework participation in Taiwan. We collected data from the Young Children's Housework Participation Questionnaire on "Google forms". A total of 755 parents with preschool children living in Keelung City, Taipei City, and New Taipei City participated through the snowball method. The results showed that children's health not only directly affected their housework performance but also indirectly influenced their housework participation through the serial multiple mediation of parents' attitude and the child's housework preference. Therefore, this study confirms that, when analyzing the factors of children's housework participation, it is necessary to have a clearer understanding of the relationship between variables to further construct a more complete model framework that affects children's housework participation. Additionally, it is very important for parenting education to improve parents' attitude towards the importance of children's housework and encourage children's preference for housework.

Who's cooking tonight? A time-use study of coupled adults in Toronto, Canada.

Understanding how coupled adults arrange food-related labor in relation to their daily time allocation is of great importance because different arrangements may have implications for diet-related health and gender equity. Studies from the time-use perspective argue that daily activities such as work, caregiving, and non-food-related housework can potentially compete for time with foodwork. However, studies in this regard are mostly centered on individual-level analyses. They fail to consider cohabiting partners' time spent on foodwork and non-food-related activities, a factor that could be helpful in explaining how coupled partners decide to allocate time to food activities. Using 108 daily time-use logs from seventeen opposite-gender couples living in Toronto, Canada, this paper examines how male and female partners' time spent on non-food-related activities impact the total amount of time spent on foodwork by coupled adults and the difference in time spent on foodwork between coupled women and men. Results show that both male and female partners took a higher portion of foodwork when their partner worked longer. When men worked for additional time, the couple-level duration of foodwork decreased. Without a significant impact on the gender difference in foodwork duration, women's increased caregiving duration was associated with a reduction of total time spent on foodwork by couples. An increase in caregiving and non-food-related chores by men was associated with an increased difference in duration of foodwork between women and men, which helped secure a constant total amount of foodwork at the couple level. These behavioral variations between men and women demonstrate the gender differences in one's responsiveness to the change of partners' non-food-related tasks. The associations found among non-food-related activities and foodwork are suggestive of a need to account for partners' time allocation when studying the time-use dynamics of foodwork and other daily activities.

Will narrowing the educational gap between husband and wife alleviate housework inequality: Evidence from China.

In the past 20 years, China's educational advantage has undergone a gender reversal. The average educational level of women is higher than that of men. However, the gender difference in housework is gradually expanding, and women are still the main undertakers of housework. Based on the China Family Panel Studies, this study explores the impact of the educational gap between husband and wife on the inequality of housework division and its mechanism. OLS regression model was used to estimate the impact of marital education gap on household inequality. It is concluded that the higher the education level of the husband is than that of the wife, the greater the gender inequality in housework. This conclusion is significant at the level of 0.01. On this basis, the instrumental variable method was used to overcome the endogenous problems and a more accurate conclusion was reached. Every unit of increase in the education gap between husband and wife would increase the degree of household inequality by 0.281 percentage points. Quantile regression provides strong evidence for the results. When the gender time ratio of housework is in the range of 0.8-0.95, the education gap will have an impact on the gender division of housework. After the robustness test and heterogeneity analysis of the model, an intermediary variable was established to discuss the mechanism of the model. The income disparity and the working time gap were proved to be intermediary variables. This study believes that in modern society, the education gap between husband and wife will affect the inequality of housework division by changing the relative income and relative working time of husband and wife. Although the educational advantages of women in the whole society have not changed their role in the division of housework. However, with the narrowing of the educational gap between husband and wife, the degree of inequality in the division of housework has been alleviated, indicating that the improvement of women's education level has alleviated the inequality in the division of housework to a certain extent.

[Returning to work after diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer]. / Reinserción laboral posterior a diagnóstico y tratamiento del cáncer de mama.

Background: Returning to work and performing housework tasks (HWT) is the final step in overcoming breast cancer (BC). Objective: To assess whether clinical characteristics and type of treatment impact employment status and performance of HWT. Material and methods: A total of 119 patients diagnosed with early BC were enrolled. Occupational and HWT-related variables were measured. Results: At diagnosis, most of the patients were employed and performed HWT. Two years after the end of treatment, 50% of the patients who were working continued to work and 68.6% of these had issues returning to work. Patients who did not return to work were diagnosed at more advanced stages and had more postoperative complications (p < 0.005). Regarding the execution of HWT, 83.3% had some degree of difficulty to perform them. Patients who underwent axillary nodal removal, those who received more frequent psychological support, and those who had more postoperative complications performed HWT with greater difficulty (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Once treatment had finished, 50% of patients did not come back to their work. In this case, the stage negative effect and the postoperative complications materialized. These data reveal that returning to work after BC diagnosis and treatment is complicated.

Introducción: la reinserción laboral y la reanudación de las tareas del hogar suponen el último paso en la superación del cáncer de mama (CM). Objetivo: evaluar si las características clínicas y el tipo de tratamiento afectan de forma negativa el desempeño en el puesto de trabajo y en el hogar. Material y métodos: se incluyeron 119 pacientes diagnosticadas de CM precoz. Se midieron las variables laborales y las relacionadas con las tareas del hogar. Resultados: al ser diagnosticadas, la mayoría de las pacientes tenía trabajo y realizaba las tareas del hogar. A los dos años de finalizado el tratamiento, el 50% de las pacientes que trabajaban continuaba trabajando y el 68.6% de estas tuvieron dificultades para retomar su trabajo. Las pacientes que no retomaron su actividad laboral fueron diagnosticadas en estadios más avanzados y tuvieron más complicaciones postoperatorias (p < 0.005). En cuanto a la ejecución de las tareas del hogar, el 83.3% tuvieron algún grado de dificultad para llevarlas a cabo. Las pacientes que fueron sometidas a vaciamiento axilar ganglionar, las que recibieron más frecuentemente apoyo psicológico y las que tuvieron más complicaciones postoperatorias realizaron las tareas del hogar con mayor esfuerzo (p < 0.005). Conclusiones: una vez terminado el tratamiento, el 50% de las pacientes no se reincorporó a su actividad laboral. En este caso, se objetivó el efecto negativo del estadio y de las complicaciones postoperatorias (p < 0.005). Estos datos revelan que la reinserción laboral tras el diagnóstico y tratamiento del CM es complicada.

US Parents' Domestic Labor During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic.

It is important to assess the long-term consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic for gender equality, but we know little about US parents' domestic arrangements beyond the early days of the pandemic or how simultaneous changes in employment, earnings, telework, gender ideologies, and care supports may have altered domestic arrangements. This study assesses changes in parents' domestic labor during the first year of the pandemic using fixed-effects regression on data from a longitudinal panel of 700 different-sex partnered US parents collected at three time points: March, April, and November 2020. Parents' divisions of housework and childcare became more equal early in the pandemic, but divisions of housework reverted toward pre-pandemic levels by Fall 2020 whereas fathers' shares of childcare remained elevated. Changes in parents' divisions of domestic labor were largely driven by changes in parents' labor force conditions, but shifts in gender ideology also mattered. Decreases in fathers' labor force participation and increases in telecommuting in April portended increases in fathers' shares of domestic tasks. As fathers increased their time in paid work and returned to in-person work by fall, their shares of domestic labor fell. Shifts toward more traditional gender ideologies were also associated with decreases in fathers' shares of childcare in Fall 2020. Overall, results point to remote work as a possible means for achieving greater gender equality in domestic labor among couples, but shifts toward traditional gender ideologies may suppress any gains stemming from supportive work-family policies. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11113-022-09735-1.

What Type of Housework Happiness Do You Prefer? Does Gender and Health Matter? A Taiwanese Study.

The purposes of this study was to discover the circumstances in which people gain happiness from performing housework and to understand gender differences in housework-related happiness. We used national data from the Taiwan Social Change Survey conducted in 2011. Only married and cohabiting respondents were included in this study (N = 1250). Two types of housework happiness were developed: the goal satisfaction type (GST) and the activity enjoyment type (AET), based on interview results in pilot studies and the concept of positive psychology. We found that the significant variables on the two types of housework-related happiness for the total sample were gender, socioeconomic status, gender role attitude, decision-making power, relative feminine housework, and respondent's health. In addition, the effects on the two types of housework-related happiness for males and females are different. Most people derive happiness from housework if their preferences for type of housework and their personal characteristics are matched. It is possible to transform an otherwise monotonous daily activity into a source of happiness through the process of understanding your housework preference type, learning to enjoy the beauty of housework, and creating fun with chores for families. However, the survey (TSCS) used in this study was carried out over 10 years ago (2011) and the results may be somewhat different in Taiwan today.

Gender differences in housework and childcare among Japanese workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Although gender stereotypes regarding paid work and unpaid work are changing, most wives are responsible for taking care of the family and home in Japan. It is unclear how time spent on housework and childcare has changed between working men and women during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. The purpose of this study is to investigate how working men and women's responsibilities for housework and childcare changed during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan depending on work hours, job type, the number of employees in the workplace, and frequency of telecommuting. METHODS: A cross-sectional analysis (N = 14,454) was conducted using data from an Internet monitoring study (CORoNa Work Project), which was conducted in December 2020. A multilevel logistic model with nested prefectures of residence was conducted to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for change in time devoted to housework and childcare among men and women adjusting for age, household income, presence of spouse who work, work hours, job type, the number of employees in the workplace, frequency of telecommuting, and the incidence rate of COVID-19 by prefecture. RESULTS: More women tended to perceive that their time of housework and/or childcare had been changed (increased housework: OR 1.92, 95% CI [1.71-2.16], P < .001; decreased workhours: 1.66 (1.25-2.19), P < .001: increased childcare: OR 1.58, 95% CI [1.29-1.92], P < .001; decreased childcare: 1.11 (0.62-2.00), P = .719). CONCLUSIONS: The time spent by women on housework and childcare changed significantly compared to men during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.