The association between the presence of occupational health nurses at Japanese worksites and health promotion activities

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to determine the association between the presence of occupational health nurses and health promotion activities, relative to the number of employees, and the health promotion policies of the companies. METHODS: We investigated 3,266 companies with at least 50 employees listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Questionnaires were sent by mail, and employees in charge of health management or promotion were asked about health promotion activities at their own worksites. Logistic regression analysis was performed with each type of health promotion activity (nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental health, smoking cessation, alcohol consumption reduction, and oral health) as dependent variables, and the presence of an occupational health nurse as the independent variable. The results were adjusted for the type of industry, total number of company employees, presence of company health promotion policies, and the presence of an occupational health physician. RESULTS: Responses were received from 415 companies (response rate: 12.7%). Occupational health nurses were present at 172 companies (41.4%). Health promotion activities such as (in order of frequency) mental health (295 companies, 71.1%), smoking cessation (133, 32.0%), exercise (99, 23.9%), nutrition (75, 18.1%), oral health (49, 11.8%), sleep (39, 9.4%), and alcohol consumption reduction (26, 6.3%) were being conducted. Setting worksites with no occupational health nurse as a reference, the odds ratios of each health promotion activity of a worksite with one or more occupational health nurses were calculated. The odds ratios of mental health (2.43, 95% confidence interval: 1.32-4.48), smoking cessation (3.70, 2.14-6.38), exercise (4.98, 2.65-9.35), nutrition (8.34, 3.86-18.03), oral health (4.25, 1.87-9.62), and alcohol consumption reduction (8.96, 2.24-35.92) were significant. Stratified analysis using the number of worksite employees, 499 or fewer and 500 or more, also showed significantly higher odds ratios of smoking cessation, exercise, and nutrition activities at worksites of both groups. However, the odds ratios were significant for mental health and oral health activities only at worksites with 499 or fewer employees. CONCLUSIONS: At worksites of listed companies around Japan, those with an occupational health nurse carried out more health promotion activities such as nutrition, exercise, mental health, smoking cessation, alcohol consumption reduction, and oral health than those without, even after adjusting for scale of the company and presence of health promotion policies. This result suggests that the posting of an occupational health nurse to a worksite is associated with the conduct of health promotion activities.