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. 2022 Aug 25;12(8):e063538.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-063538.

Association between work stress and health behaviours in Korean and Japanese ageing studies: a cross-sectional study

Taozhu Cheng  1 , Bo Zhang  2 , Jing Guo  3 , Hynek Pikhart  4
Affiliations

Association between work stress and health behaviours in Korean and Japanese ageing studies: a cross-sectional study

Taozhu Cheng et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: Limited research has focused on the association between work stress and health behaviours in Asian countries. We aimed to explore the effect of work stress on two health behaviours among employees aged 45 years or above in two countries with ageing populations, Korea and Japan.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Setting: This secondary data analysis was conducted on baseline data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging (KLoSA, 2006) and the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR, 2007 and 2009).

Participants: Included in the analytical sample were 4982 responders without missing data aged 45 years or older who reported work positions and hours (KLoSA n=3478, JSTAR n=1504).

Main outcome measures: Work stress was represented by the short version of the effort-reward imbalance (ERI) model. We used logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression to investigate the association between work stress and smoking (binary current smoking) and between work stress and drinking (categorical volume of alcohol). Socioeconomic and work-related characteristics were taken into consideration, and we examined the potential interaction between ERI and gender.

Results: Work stress as measured by ERI ratio was significantly associated with both smoking and drinking in the KLoSA analysis; after the model was fully adjusted, ORs were 1.45 (95% CI 1.17 to 1.80) and 1.44 (95% CI 1.09 to 1.90), respectively. In analysis of the data from JSTAR, the ERI ratio was associated with smoking (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.01 to 1.89) but not with drinking. No statistically significant interaction was found between ERI and gender in any model (p=0.82 in KLoSA data and p=0.19 in JSTAR data).

Conclusions: Statistically significant associations were found between work stress and both smoking and drinking behaviours in Korea and between work stress and smoking in Japan. Government integration of effort-reward balance programmes and health promotion programmes could effectively promote population health in these two Asian countries.

Keywords: epidemiology; mental health; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow chart of the Korean cross-sectional study sample selection. KLoSA, Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flow chart of the Japanese cross-sectional study sample selection. JSTAR, Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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