Objectives: Using the Total Health Index (THI) health check questionnaire, we aim to clarify the subjective health associated with working using visual display terminals (VDTs).

Methods: Focusing on male manufacturing workers, we analyzed data from responses to 130 THI questions in the four annual surveys from 2010 for three groups: those who worked with VDTs for four hours or more per day (4 h<), less than four hours per day (4 h>), and those who did not use VDTs (0 h). We examined the state of subjective health by assigning scores to the three-choice responses to each question (yes=3, sometimes=2, no=0 point). We then calculated the cumulative scale score for each of the 16 scales to determine the three groups’ characteristics.

Results: The 4 h<, 4 h>, and 0 h groups consisted of 480, 440, and 80 employees, respectively. The 4 h< group had significantly more complaints of eye fatigue, lack of energy, and others than the 4 h> group. The mean percentile of the scale score was significantly higher for the two scales of “eyes/skin” and “depression” in the 4 h< group than the 4 h> group. We compared the changes in scale scores between those who increased and those who decreased their VDT work time with those in the previous year. The group increased with VDT work time showed higher scores in the questions “lack of energy recently” and others. Regular exercise reduced the severity of complaints about depression.

Conclusions: THI confirmed that prolonged VDT work has negative impacts on health. To reduce these negative impacts, surveys using THI are useful for determining preventive measures.

Hygiene is a field of study that aims to “protect health” and “protect lifestyle” of people from external factors such as bacteria, poor nutrition, and toxic chemicals, as well as internal factors such as lifestyle and stress. In the early days of hygiene science in Japan, the results of nutritional epidemiology research by Dr. Kanehiro Takaki, a naval doctor who studied medicine in Kagoshima, on the prevention of beriberi, a national disease at the time, were highly regarded internationally. Since then, hygiene research on food ingredients has been vigorously pursued to expand from basic research to applied research, as exemplified by the development of the allithiamine. The symposium “Food Ingredients and Hygiene: Exploring the Functions of Food Ingredients from Hygiene” was organized by the Young Researchers Association at the 94th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Hygiene (Kagoshima) to introduce recent research and examples of industry-academia collaboration. Young researchers involved in hygiene research on foods and food materials presented their recent work ranging from basic research, such as the functional evaluation of foods by animal experiments and the evaluation of the effects of polyphenols and yogurt on health, which have long been studied, to applied research leading to the commercialization of foods with useful physiological effects. This mini-review is a summary of the symposium. As the Young Researchers Association, we hope that this symposium/mini-review will encourage young researchers to become interested in various functions of food ingredients, conduct related research, and consider how to contribute their research results to society.