Abstract
Summary: Because stress has a profound adverse effect on Japanese workers’ health, the government and companies have taken various provisions. Companies held workshops to promote stress-level checks and stress-management education. Currently, more workers participate in the checks and education sessions. However, it is a problem that participating in stress checks and education sessions is not related to subsequent implementation of self-care behavior. We hypothesized that workers’ stress-management behaviors are affected by individual differences in attitudes toward “stress.” In other words, self-evaluation of stress level is the first step required to produce stress-coping behavior. Even if people experience stress, those who underestimate their stress level and the importance of stress management might not implement adequate stress management. In this paper, we introduce a qualitative study of stress attitudes intended for acute myocardial infarction patients and quantitative studies of workers. Applying the factor of “stress underestimation tendency” is expected to enhance the effectiveness of stress-level checks or stress-management education in companies.
