Objectives: The purpose of this study was to clarify the relationship between the change of mental health and the improvement of lifestyle and physical health in the lifestyle intervention program.
Methods: The study was conducted using data from 126 persons (50 males and 76 females) who participated in the 6-month lifestyle intervention program. We used the result of the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-30 as the indicator of mental health, the number of steps, surveys concerning caloric intake, and sleeping hours as the indicator of lifestyle, and body weight, BMI, blood pressure, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and HBA1c. The subjects were classified into four groups based on the change of mental health: Group-GG, change from good to good (n=80); Group-PG, change from poor to good (n=25); Group-PP, change from poor to poor (n=13); and Group-GP, change from good to poor (n=8). The changes between pre-intervention and post-intervention were compared for each group by the paired t-test, and among the 4 groups by ANCOVA.
Results: In Group-GG, the number of steps (p<0.01), caloric intake (p<0.05) and sleeping hours (p<0.01) were significantly improved, triglyceride was significantly decreased (p<0.01), and total and HDL cholesterol were significantly increased (p<0.01). However there were no significant changes in Group-GP.
Conclusion: The state and change of mental health were found to be significantly associated with the improvement of lifestyle and physical health.
