Health indicators as moderators of occupational commitment and nurses' intention to leave.

AIM: This study examined the hypothesis that health indicators moderate the relationship between occupational commitment and intention to leave among nurses, using a large sample in Japan. METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all registered nurses (N = 11,171) working in group hospitals in western Japan in 2014. The questionnaire evaluated intention to leave, occupational commitment, psychological distress, cumulative fatigue, and demographic variables. After a preliminary analysis of the bivariate and multivariate associations between variables and intention to leave, we tested the interactions between occupational commitment and health indicators on intention to leave. RESULTS: Of the 5,768 returned questionnaires, data from 5,505 (49.3%) participants were analyzed. Participants' mean age was 36.27 years (SD = 10.37). Most (95.14%) were women. According to a generalized estimating equation, the interaction of continuance occupational commitment and cumulative fatigue was significantly related to intention to leave (b = -0.0055). Additionally, the interaction of affective occupational commitment and psychological distress was significantly related to intention to leave (b = 0.0079). CONCLUSIONS: This study clarified that the relationship between occupational commitment and intention to leave was robust for nurses in good health. Interventions aimed at reducing fatigue and improving psychological distress should be implemented to prevent the protective effects of occupational commitment on nurses' intention to leave from being compromised.

Determinants Strengthening Japanese Nurses' Intention to Stay at Their Current Hospital.

In order to retain nursing staff, it is crucial to have a comprehensive understanding of the factors that motivate nurses to stay at an institution. Toward this aim, we identified a variety of factors that strengthen nurses' intention to stay at their current hospital. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted at 12 hospitals in the Tohoku and Kanto regions of Japan. Of the 1,034 nurses working in those hospitals, 713 returned the questionnaire (response rate: 69.0%). Of these, we analysed the data of 485 nurses (17.42 ± 9.83 years of clinical experience, 95.3% female) (valid response rate: 46.9%) who met the inclusion criteria of planning to stay at their current hospital and completing all questionnaire items. An exploratory factor analysis indicated that variables strengthening intention to stay at the current hospital could be grouped into five factors: "comfortable workplace environment," "passive motivational factors," "convenience of hospital location," "favorable work-life balance," and "fulfilment in nursing." Nurses who were married or had children placed a higher priority on a "favorable work-life balance" in remaining at their current workplace. Regular employees or nurses working in the smaller cities tended to display higher "passive motivational factors," which comprised various extrinsic factors. Though extrinsic factors are considered to make only short-term contributions to employee retention, they could generate positive synergistic effects when combined with intrinsic motivations such as "fulfilment in nursing." Effective nurse-retention strategies should be developed by capitalizing on the interaction among the five factors that strengthen nurses to stay at their current hospital.

Positive Emotion and its Changes during Pregnancy: Adjunct Study of Japan Environment and Children's Study in Miyagi Prefecture.

During pregnancy, women experience various emotional changes. Previous research has investigated positive emotion influenced childbirth outcomes positively. This study explored the extent of positive emotion which pregnant women aware of their own pregnancy life subjectively and variables related to the changes thereof. This was an adjunct study of the Japan Environment and Children's Study which is a nationwide epidemiological study to identify the impact of environmental factors on health and development of children in Miyagi Prefecture. Data were collected at 12 weeks (T1) and 24-28 weeks (T2) of gestation. Participants were 3,513 pregnant women. Women's degree of positive emotion was assessed through a numeric rating scale. We also measured related variables, including obstetric factors, physical health status, mental health status, and social situation, using the 8-Item Short Form Health Survey, Kessler-6, and family APGAR score, along with demographic data. Analyses included correlations among variables related to the change in positive emotion. The extent of positive emotion was significantly related with health-related quality of life and satisfaction with family relationships during pregnancy. The women whose positive emotion decreased from T1 to T2 tended to have lower morning sickness symptoms, be unemployed, lower physical and mental health status, and a higher risk of psychological distress in middle pregnancy. Importantly, even discomfort like morning sickness, physical symptoms that indicate being pregnant, might make women to confirm pregnancy. Moreover, employment and satisfaction with family relationships are especially crucial for pregnant women to spend comfortable maternity life.

Age at first birth and long-term mortality for mothers: the Ohsaki cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Although maternal age at first birth has been rising in many developed countries, its long-term effects on the health of the mothers themselves are unclear. In this study, we investigated the relationship between maternal age at first birth and long-term mortality. METHODS: We conducted a cohort study of 20,624 parous Japanese women aged between 40 and 79 years in 1994 and followed up their survival for 14 years. Based on maternal age at first birth, the women were divided into four groups: ≤19 years, 20-24 years, 25-29 years, and ≥30 years. Using the 20-24 years group as a reference, hazards ratios (HRs) for all-cause and cause-specific mortality were calculated. RESULTS: Multivariate HRs for all-cause mortality were 1.17 in the ≤19 years group, 1.09 in the 25-29 years group, and 1.33 in the ≥30 years group. A U-shaped relationship was apparent between maternal age at first birth and mortality. This relationship was also observed for mortality attributable to cancer, cardiovascular disease and other diseases. This U-shaped relationship was observed only for women born before 1935 and the birth year of the first child before 1960. CONCLUSION: A U-shaped relationship was apparent between maternal age at first birth and mortality. As maternal age at first birth is rising worldwide, the risk it imposes appears to have significance in the context of public health.

Occupational commitment and job satisfaction mediate effort-reward imbalance and the intention to continue nursing.

AIM: Occupational commitment and job satisfaction are major predictors of the intention to continue nursing. This study's purpose was to verify the mediating effects of job satisfaction and three components of occupational commitment on the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and the intention to continue nursing. METHODS: A self-report questionnaire was distributed to 3977 nurses by the nursing department of 12 hospitals in the Tohoku and Kanto districts of Japan in 2013. Of these, 1531 (response rate: 38.5%) nurses returned the questionnaire by mail and the complete data that were provided by 1241 nurses (valid response rate: 31.2%) were analyzed. RESULTS: Structural equation modeling showed that the effort-reward ratio had negative effects on job satisfaction and affective and normative occupational commitment. Job satisfaction and affective and normative occupational commitment had positive effects on the intention to continue nursing, whereas the effort-reward ratio had no direct effect on the intention to continue nursing. Continuance occupational commitment was not a mediator, but it positively influenced the intention to continue nursing. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that it is important to increase job satisfaction and affective and normative occupational commitment in order to enhance their buffering effects on the relationship between job stress and the intention to continue nursing. Measures to increase continuance occupational commitment also would be an effective method of strengthening the intention to continue nursing. Improvements in these areas should contribute to an increase in nurses' intention to continue nursing and prevent the loss of this precious human resource from the health sector.

The Development of the Attitude Toward Professional Autonomy Scale for Nurses in Japan.

This study's aim was to develop and test the psychometric properties of the Attitude toward Professional Autonomy Scale for Nurses in Japan. In Study 1, the initial (26-item) version of the scale was pilot tested on 454 Japanese nurses; item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed. In Study 2, the revised version of the scale (19 items) was administered to 802 Japanese nurses. The scale had good internal consistency (α = .85). Correlations with the scale of the desire of self-determination supported its concurrent validity. The scale could facilitate the assessment of cognitive aspects of professional autonomy among nurses and contribute to assessment of the propensity to behave autonomously among nurses in various clinical settings.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices Toward Blood Pressure Measurement at Home Among Japanese Nurses.

The self-measurement of blood pressure (BP) at home is useful in predicting the level of target organ damage and in managing hypertension. Nurses are essential practitioners for managing hypertension; however, it is unclear whether they have adequate knowledge of home BP management. This study assessed the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of home BP measurement among Japanese nurses. A questionnaire regarding home BP measurement was distributed among nurses and collected by mail. A total of 6,002 (61.8%) responses were eligible for the study. The proportion of participants who correctly recognized the reference values for clinic BP and home BP was 9.9% and 2.8%. Midwives and those working for the government had the highest proportion of correct responses of reference values among all nursing subgroups. Participants who thought that home BP gave the most important BP information were 62.7%. About 60% of the participants who recommended home BP measurement to hypertensive patients preferred to recommend an upper-arm cuff device. Our findings suggested that more knowledge of home BP measurement among nurses is warranted.

[Serum total cholesterol levels and eligibility for long-term care insurance: a prospective cohort study of the Tsurugaya project].

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between serum total cholesterol levels and certification eligibility for long-term care insurance in elderly Japanese individuals. METHODS: The Tsurugaya Project was a comprehensive geriatric assessment conducted for community-dwelling elderly individuals aged ≥70 years in the Tsurugaya area, Sendai, Japan. Of the 2,925 inhabitants, 958 subjects participated in the Tsurugaya Project. For this analysis, we used 827 subjects who gave informed consent and were not qualified for long-term care insurance at the time of the baseline survey. Subjects were followed up for 6 years. We classified the subjects into 4 quintiles and used the fourth quintile (212-230 mg/dL) as a reference for statistical analysis. We used Cox proportional hazards model to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of certification eligibility for long-term care insurance according to total cholesterol levels in serum. RESULTS: During 6 years of follow-up, a total of 214 subjects were qualified for long-term care insurance certification. The lowest serum total cholesterol level (<177 mg/dL) was significantly associated with increased eligibility for long-term care insurance certification. Compared with the fourth quintile, multivariate HRs (95%CIs) of long-term care insurance certification were 1.91 (1.23-2.98), 1.36 (0.85-2.18), 0.99 (0.62-1.56), 1.38 (0.88-2.17), for <177 mg/dL, 177-194 mg/dL, 195-211 mg/dL, and ≤231 mg/dL, respectively. Moreover, the association was statistically significant even after excluding subjects with a history of liver disease or cancer, an abnormality in the liver function test, or high levels of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein. CONCLUSION: Low serum total cholesterol levels were significantly associated with increased eligibility for long-term care insurance certification even after adjusting for a variety of confounding factors.

Effects of position and task demands on endogenous eyeblink.

The present study investigated the effects of the supine position and task demands on blink activities. 24 participants (M age = 21.7 yr., SD = 0.5) performed the Japanese version of the Reading Span Test to investigate the effects of task difficulty. Eyeblink activities were detected by electrooculogram, via a wireless system, and were analyzed using newly developed software. Results showed that the supine position did not affect blink rate itself, but some wave characteristics of blinks, such as blink amplitude and closing and re-opening duration, were influenced; specifically, amplitude was reduced and durations increased. Further analyses suggested that task demands affected eyeblink rates but did not affect waveform attributes. Eyeblink rates increased during task performance and decreased during rest periods but it was not confirmed that this task demand effect was larger in the supine position than in the sitting position.

Association of marital status with the incidence of suicide: a population-based Cohort Study in Japan (Miyagi cohort study).

BACKGROUND: Marital status is one of the most frequently replicated predictors of suicide. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of marital status on the risk of suicide by gender, using a large population-based cohort in Japan. METHODS: The Miyagi cohort study was a population-based, prospective cohort study of Japanese adults aged between 40 and 64 years. Between June and August 1990, 47,604 participants residing in 14 municipalities of Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, completed a questionnaire on various health-related lifestyles, including marital status. During 18 years of follow-up, 146 of the participants committed suicide. We used the Cox proportional hazards regression model to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for suicide mortality according to marital status with adjustment for potential confounders. RESULTS: A total of 106 and 40 deaths from suicide were recorded during 344,813 and 365,524 person-years of follow-up among 20,671 men and 21,076 women, respectively. We found that marital status was significantly associated with the risk of completing suicide only in men. Among men, after multivariate adjustment, HRs in reference to married were as follows: widowed or divorced, 2.84 (95% CI: 1.37-5.90); unmarried, 1.56 (95% CI: 0.67-3.64). A significantly increased risk of suicidal death was observed among widowed or divorced men, whereas no such trend was evident for women. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that men who are widowed or divorced, or unmarried, are at increased risk of suicide, whereas no such risk is evident for women.

Lactation pattern and the risk for hormone-related female cancer in Japan: the Ohsaki Cohort Study.

Although breastfeeding is associated with a reduction in the risk for breast cancer, its relationship with another hormone-related female cancer, endometrial cancer, has not been fully investigated. The objective of the present study was to prospectively examine the association between lactation pattern and the risk for incidence of breast cancer and endometrial cancer in Japanese women. We analyzed data for 26 680 women registered in the Ohsaki National Health Insurance Cohort Study, who were 40-79 years old at the baseline. During the 11 years of follow-up, we identified 148 incident cases of breast cancer and 32 incident cases of endometrial cancer. Compared with breastfeeding only, multivariate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the risk of breast cancer incidence were 1.12 (0.92-1.37) for women who had performed mixed feeding and 1.80 (1.14-2.86) for those who fed their babies only with formula (P-trend=0.014). For endometrial cancer incidence, multivariate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals were 1.32 (0.86-2.03) for women who had performed mixed feeding and 3.26 (1.23-8.61) for those who had performed only formula feeding (P-trend=0.018). Our findings appear to raise the possibility that nonbreastfeeding is positively associated with the risks for both breast cancer incidence and endometrial cancer incidence. Confirmation of our findings would require further investigation.

Survival strategies of male nurses in rural areas of Japan.

AIM: This study seeks to describe the survival strategies of male nurses in Japanese rural areas. METHODS: Interviews were conducted with 12 male nurses who described their occupational experiences. The modified grounded theory approach was used for the data collection and analysis. RESULTS: The survival strategies of these male nurses can be categorized into four types: (i) giving priority to the achievement of financial security; (ii) agreeing to a dependent relationship with doctors; (iii) maintaining one's male identity through supporting the female nurses; and (iv) making an appeal to the significance of men in the female-dominated nursing profession. CONCLUSION: The survival strategies that were used by the male nurses were subtle, allowing them to influence indirectly both the female nurses and the doctors. These findings contribute to our understanding of the experiences of male nurses, a gendered minority in a female-dominated workplace, and encourage gender equality in the nursing profession.

Participation in health check-ups and mortality using propensity score matched cohort analyses.

OBJECTIVE: All Japanese aged ≥40 years are eligible for free annual health check-ups including blood pressure and cholesterol measurements. It is well known that health check-up screenees are more likely to have healthy lifestyles and better health conditions than non-screenees. Therefore, controlling these factors is required to investigate whether screenees have a lower mortality risk than non-screenees independent of their lifestyles or health conditions. METHODS: We followed 48,775 Japanese National Health Insurance beneficiaries aged 40-79 years since 1994 for 11 years. We used Cox proportional hazard models adjusted for possible confounding factors. We also performed propensity for use of the health check-up matched cohort analyses. RESULTS: Compared to non-screenees, multiple-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality among screenees were 0.74 (0.62-0.88) and 0.65 (0.44-0.95) for men and 0.69 (0.52-0.91) and 0.61 (0.36-1.04) for women, respectively. These relations were also observed when we used propensity matched cohort analyses. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to show that mortality rates are lower among screenees than non-screenees in Japanese health check-ups when propensity matched cohort analyses were used for adjusting confounding factors. Further prospective studies, including randomized controlled trials, are required to confirm whether screening lowers mortality.

Green tea and death from pneumonia in Japan: the Ohsaki cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Experimental and animal studies have shown the activities of catechins, the main constituents of green tea, against infectious agents. No data are available on the association between green tea consumption and the risk of pneumonia in humans. OBJECTIVE: We examined the association between green tea consumption and death from pneumonia in humans. DESIGN: We conducted a population-based cohort study, with follow-up from 1995 to 2006. The participants were National Health Insurance beneficiaries in Japan (19,079 men and 21,493 women aged 40-79 y). We excluded participants for whom data on green tea consumption frequency were missing or who had reported a history of cancer, myocardial infarction, stroke, and extreme daily energy intake at baseline. We used Cox proportional hazards regression analysis to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and their 95% CIs for death from pneumonia according to green tea consumption. RESULTS: Over 12 y of follow-up, we documented 406 deaths from pneumonia. In women, the multivariate HRs of death from pneumonia that were associated with different frequencies of green tea consumption were 1.00 (reference) for <1 cup/d, 0.59 (95% CI: 0.36, 0.98) for 1-2 cups/d, 0.55 (95% CI: 0.33, 0.91) for 3-4 cups/d, and 0.53 (95% CI: 0.33, 0.83) for > or =5 cups/d, respectively (P for trend: 0.008). In men, no significant association was observed. CONCLUSION: Green tea consumption was associated with a lower risk of death from pneumonia in Japanese women.