A study of preventive medicine in relation to mental health among middle-management employees (Part 1) - Relationship between lifestyles and working-life satisfaction

Abstract

This study examined the cross-sectional relationship between health practices and working-life satisfaction, which we used as a subjective index of Quality of Life (QOL), based on data obtained from a survey of 3,928 middle-management employees (1,026 department chiefs and 2,902 section chiefs) in 110 major companies in 1990. The results are summarized as follows. (1) The section chiefs had more poor health practices than the department chiefs. The section chiefs appeared to have significantly more poor habits in terms of cigarette smoking, eating breakfast, nutritional balance, working hours, snacking, salt consumption, obesity, enjoying hobbies and physical status than the department chiefs. Surprisingly, 66% of department chiefs and 77% of section chiefs worked more than 10 hours per day. (2) Both the Health Practice Index (HPI) and working-life satisfaction tended to be higher as their ages were higher. (3) The department chiefs who had a poor nutritional balance, did not maintain an adequate stress level, had poor eating habits, poor sleeping habits and physical inactivity appeared to have lower working-life satisfaction. (4) The working-life satisfaction of the management staff was significantly affected by health practices, occupational stress, physical health status and position after controlling simultaneously for the other potential confounders. From these results, it may be concluded that the behavioral lifestyle change of the middle-management employee is an important factor to promote mental health as evaluated by working life satisfaction.