2010 Volume 33 Issue 4 Pages 350-359
In recent years, workers have shown a tendency to suffer increasing amounts of stress, and over 60% claim to feel much anxiety towards their jobs. Problems of psychological health are having an increasing impact on workers, their families and their communities. Furthermore, regular health checks are uncovering health problems in more workers each year, indicating an urgent need for measures to promote psychological and physical health. The aim of our research was to assess current job-related lifestyle behaviors, eating behaviors and stress response and to examine the relationships between them. In August 2006, 980 employees from retail business Company A were given self-assessment surveys (response rate: 63.7%). Excluding those which were left mostly incomplete, a total of 624 usable responses were received and examined. Examination of the relationships between stress response and various lifestyle behaviors showed significant correlations of stress response with eating behavior, exercise and body image satisfaction. The variables that had high correlations with psychological stress responses were psychological workload, interpersonal relations at work, relationship with superiors, lifestyle satisfaction, cognitive restraint and emotional eating. On the other hand, the variables whose correlations with physical stress response were high were psychological workload, amount degree of skill use, lifestyle satisfaction, uncontrolled eating and emotional eating. Not only is there a need for behavior modification support to improve lifestyle behaviors, but assistance for increasing support from superiors in the workplace is also essential for stress management. In addition to the clear need for effective supervisor training, various long-term education and consultation programs for employees and their families should also be considered.
