Title
Effect of the National Stress Check Program on mental health among workers in Japan: A 1-year retrospective cohort study
Date Issued
01 January 2018
Access level
open access
Resource Type
research article
Author(s)
Imamura K.
Asai Y.
Watanabe K.
Tsutsumi A.
Shimazu A.
Inoue A.
Hiro H.
Odagiri Y.
Yoshikawa T.
Yoshikawa E.
Kawakami N.
Abstract
Objectives: This retrospective cohort study evaluated the impact of the Stress Check Program, a recently introduced national policy and program aimed at reducing psychological distress among Japanese workers. Methods: A baseline survey was conducted from November 2015 to February 2016, the period when Japan began enforcing the Stress Check Program. A oneyear follow-up survey was conducted in December 2016. In the follow-up survey, two exposure variables were collected: having taken the annual stress survey, and experiencing an improvement in the psychosocial work environment. Psychological distress was assessed using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) at baseline and 1-year follow-up. The two exposure variables were used to define four groups: "Neither", "Stress survey (SS) only ", " Psychosocial work environment improvement (WI) only", and "Both". BJSQ results were analyzed using repeated measures general linear modeling (GLM). Results: The study included 2,492 participants: 1,342 in the "Neither" group, 1,009 in the "SS only" group, 76 in the "WI only" group, and 65 in the "Both" group. Overall time-group interaction effects were not significant. The "Both" group showed significantly greater improvements in psychological distress than the "Neither" group (p = 0.02) at the 1-year follow-up, although the effect size was small (d = -0.14). Conclusions: Combination of the annual stress survey and improvement in psychosocial work environment may have been effective in reducing psychological distress in workers, although the effect size was small.
Start page
298
End page
306
Volume
60
Issue
4
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Salud ocupacional
Subjects
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85050372184
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Occupational Health
ISSN of the container
13419145
Sponsor(s)
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Sources of information:
Directorio de Producción Científica
Scopus