After the report of 17 patients with occupational cholangiocarcinoma caused by long-term exposure to high concentrations of 1,2-dichloropropane and/or dichloromethane in a printing company in Osaka in 2014, additional five patients were diagnosed to have such cholangiocarcinoma. Cholangiocarcinoma was detected during regular health examination or follow-up for liver dysfunction in four of the five patients. Nearly all five patients presented with clinicopathological findings such as an elevated γ-glutamyl transpeptidase activity at the diagnosis, regional dilatation of intrahepatic bile ducts without tumor-induced obstruction, chronic bile duct injury, and precancerous/early cancerous lesions (biliary intraepithelial neoplasia and intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile duct) at various sites of the bile duct. These findings were similar to those of the previous 17 patients. In total, cholangiocarcinoma developed in 22 of 95 workers exposed to 1,2-dichloropropane in the printing company. Of 22 patients with cholangiocarcinoma, 18 patients were members of 19 high exposure workers (≥1,500 ppm-years). These findings strengthen further the theory that 1,2-dichloropropane causes occupational cholangiocarcinoma. Regular health examination of workers exposed to 1,2-dichloropropane and/or dichloromethane is necessary to detect such cholangiocarcinoma because the potential of the carcinogenesis risk persists over the long term.

School bullying victimization may deteriorate job satisfaction as well as life satisfaction. This study assessed the effects of school bullying on job satisfaction in middle-age. We used data collected in 1965 (when the participants were aged 7 yr), 1969 (11 yr), and 2008 (50 yr), from a 50-yr prospective study of the 1958 British Birth Cohort. Bullying victimization was rated via parental interviews when the participants were 7 and 11 yr of age. A combined variable of bullying victimization (never, occasionally, and frequently) at these two ages was used. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to assess job satisfaction. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses, adjusted for possible confounders, were conducted to clarify the association between school bullying and job satisfaction later in life. Of 4,879 middle-aged workers, 43% (occasionally bullied: 28%; frequently bullied: 15%) reported bullying-related victimization. No significant association was identified between school bullying and job satisfaction when job satisfaction was treated as a continuous variable; however, frequent bullying was significantly negatively associated with job satisfaction when job satisfaction was treated as a binary variable. Experiences of school bullying were more strongly reflected in life satisfaction than in job satisfaction. Future studies should examine the mechanism of this relationship.

The aim of this scoping review was to provide an overview and classification of existing studies on strategies and measures to reduce the workload of nuclear industry main control room operators and emergency response organization personnel to support their wellbeing and functional capacity during crises. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) statement guidelines were followed. All the 49 studies included involved main control room operators. No studies were found on emergency response organizations. Forty studies addressed technical systems, interfaces and/or algorithms, 11 addressed guides, procedures and protocols, and three addressed training as workload management measures. Yet, only 11 studies evaluated the workload empirically. In conclusion, a large number of studies on technically oriented support measures, protocols and procedures was found. The empirical evidence on the effects of workload management measures was scarce. Further research is needed to truly evaluate the effects of these workload management strategies and measures on employees' workload, wellbeing, and functional capacity. Also, more research is needed on other measures such as management models, working hour arrangements, and social and psychological support measures. Further, the workload management of emergency response organization personnel should also be studied.

Sleepiness is a significant workplace safety hazard and prevalent in shift workers including bus drivers. Several aspects of professional driving can result in shortened sleep and increased sleepiness, which has the potential to result in workplace injuries, incidents and crashes. Caffeine is an effective sleepiness countermeasure; however, private and professional drivers also report using potentially ineffective countermeasures such as sugar. By identifying factors which predict use of specific countermeasures (e.g., sugar, caffeine), educational initiatives could be targeted towards encouraging effective use. A subset of data was analysed from a driver sleepiness survey with London bus drivers (n=1,335). Univariate and multivariate logistic regressions were conducted to determine which factors separately predicted use of sugar (n=238) or caffeine (n=238) as a sleepiness countermeasure. Being female, having higher self-reported sleep quality and waking indexes and actively doing something to stay awake were predictive of sugar use. Age, sleeping pill use and actively doing something to stay awake were the strongest predictors of caffeine. However, many predictors from the univariate analyses were the same for both sugar and caffeine. Although tailored initiatives could be developed, broader education relating to managing sleepiness should be implemented for all bus drivers to encourage effective countermeasure use.

This study investigated the relationship between work engagement, workaholism, and mental well-being of individuals and their intimate partners. This association was explored in the context of Indonesian dual-earner couples, using the Spillover-Crossover Model (SCM). The study examined how work-to-family spillover (i.e. work-to-family conflict and facilitation) and recovery experiences (i.e. psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, and control) mediate these relationships. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 186 Indonesian dual-earner couples with preschool children. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model and bootstrap method was conducted to evaluate the indirect relationships. As hypothesized, among male and female workers, work engagement was positively related to individual's mental well-being through work-to-family facilitation and recovery experiences. In contrast, workaholism was negatively related to individual's mental well-being through work-to-family conflict and recovery experiences excluding psychological detachment. Individual's mental well-being, in turn, was positively related to intimate partner's mental well-being. These findings suggested that work engagement and workaholism were related to intimate partner's mental well-being differently. These results further supported the SCM, suggesting that higher work engagement could increase workers' and their intimate partners' mental well-being through work-to-family facilitation and their recovery experiences, while workaholism acts oppositely.

This study aimed to clarify the relationship between presenteeism and the level of satisfaction with the work environment in the anime industry. Data from the Animation Producers Survey 2023 were analyzed. A total of 366 laborers were included in this study. Presenteeism was assessed using the Work Functioning Impairment Scale (WFun). The satisfaction levels with eight items were evaluated, including current income level, income stability, working hours, workload, professional content, work relationships, job stability, and prospects for future work and work style. No significant differences were observed in the current income level and working hours, which were not according to the Effort-Reward Imbalance model, whereas those of other items were consistent with the model or the Job Demand-Control-Support model. Providing occupational health services tailored to the industry's characteristics is necessary for preventing occupational dysfunction among animators.

This paper presents a new conceptual framework, and stepwise approach to populate it, for informing countermeasure development to support fitness-to-drive for professional drivers. Professional drivers are vital to the transport network; however, the job is demanding and drivers are vulnerable to impairments which may impact safe driving. Countermeasures are any action or activity that mitigates the impact or frequency of occurrence of driver impairment. The framework proposes countermeasures to be delivered across three time points: Operational (during shift), Tactical (immediately after shift) and Strategic (outside of on-shift) and at multiple system levels, e.g., driver, manager, enforcement etc. The framework was successfully pilot tested with three different professional driver use cases: autonomous shuttles, taxi, and garbage truck drivers. This structured approach to countermeasure design offers potential to improve driver health and enhance road safety. The work was conducted within PANACEA, an EU project, grant agreement number 953426.

We investigated the implementation of safe work practices for preventing low back pain (LBP) among care workers (CWs) to ascertain the interrelationships between appropriate device use and the frequency of working postures/movements that cause LBP. This cross-sectional study used an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire of CW team leaders (one per facility) working at long-term care facilities in Japan. Data on bed-height adjustment, the use of devices for repositioning in bed and bed- and wheelchair-transfer assistance, and the frequency of awkward postures/movements were cross-tabulated and analyzed using Haberman's residuals. Among the LBP prevention measures adopted by the facilities, 79.1%, 61.6%, and 30.9% involved bed-height adjustment, the use of repositioning/transferring devices, and the use of mechanical lifts, respectively. However, only 12.8% of the facilities had thorough bed-height adjustments, and 79.5% and 86.5% repositioned residents on the bed without assistive devices or transferred residents between the bed and wheelchair without assistive devices, respectively. Facilities that enforce bed-height adjustment and device use had fewer incidences of awkward posture/movement than those that did not. Our study revealed a discrepancy between the facility's policy and the implementation of LBP prevention measures. Additionally, bed-height adjustment and device use were related to reduced working postures/movements that cause LBP.

Laughter is related to better well-being in daily life. Previous cross-sectional research among employees showed a positive relationship between laughter and work-related well-being (i.e., work engagement). However, longitudinal and even bidirectional relationships have not been yet explored. This study thus investigated the longitudinal and reciprocal relationships of laughter, with work engagement and workaholism as positive and negative aspects of work-related well-being. Specifically, we conducted two-wave web-based surveys among Japanese employees via an Internet survey company with a one-year interval, and 855 valid data were analyzed. The hypotheses were then tested using structural equation modeling. The results showed that increases in laughter during the previous year were positively and negatively related to future work engagement and workaholism, respectively. In addition, through changes in laughter, the initial work engagement led to future work engagement (gain cycle), whereas initial workaholism led to future workaholism (loss cycle). These findings suggest that laughter and work-related well-being influence each other reciprocally rather than unidirectionally. This underlines the importance of studying reversed as well as regular causal effects in the relationship between laughter and employee well-being.

The psychological states of wives and husbands are thought to influence each other to varying degrees. However, relatively little is known from a longitudinal observation about the effects of spouses' psychological distress and well-being on their mental health. To address this question, we analyzed the TWIN Study II dataset using a three-wave annual survey of the psychological distress and happiness of 379 dual-income families. A group-based trajectory modeling analysis was conducted to identify psychological distress patterns and happiness over time, while estimating the effects of spouses' psychological distress and happiness and their own job demands, control, and support as time-varying covariates. The two- or three-group trajectory model best fit husbands' and wives' psychological distress and happiness trajectories. Husbands' trajectories of psychological distress and happiness were significantly influenced by wives' happiness as well as their own job demands and/or support, whereas wives' happiness and psychological distress were not.

This study sought to investigate whether association between customer verbal abuse and depressive symptoms differed by workload. We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 795 cosmetic sales workers at department store in South Korea. Experience of customer verbal abuse over the past one month was measured by using a yes/no question. Depressive symptoms during the preceding week were assessed by using 20 items from the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale. Workload during the past week was measured by asking the number of customers a worker dealt with on average in a day and classified into two categories: 1) Low (15 people or less), and 2) High (more than 15 people). Cosmetics sales workers' experience of customer verbal abuse was associated with a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms (PR: 1.37, 95% CI: 1.15-1.63). After being stratified by workload, customer verbal abuse showed a statistically significant association with depressive symptoms among high workload groups (PR: 1.46, 95% CI: 1.19-1.79), whereas the association was not statistically significant among low workload group (PR: 1.23, 95% CI: 0.91-1.65). Our findings suggest that experience of customer verbal abuse could have a negative influence on depressive symptoms among high-workload cosmetics sales workers in South Korea.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is becoming prevalent among younger people who have dual roles at both work and home. A possible contributor to CVD is conflict between work and home life. Thus, this study investigated the impact of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) on metabolic risk factors. We used longitudinal data with a 4-yr interval from the Midlife in Japan study. 152 participants who were employed at baseline without missing variables of interest were included. We assessed the associations of baseline WFC and FWC with changes in metabolic risk factors between baseline and follow-up using Generalized Estimating Equations. After adjusting for baseline sociodemographic, work and family-related, and lifestyle factors, the fully adjusted model showed WFC was significantly associated with changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) and Total cholesterol (TC)/high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ratio. However, FWC was not significantly associated with changes in any metabolic risk factors. Our findings indicated a significant impact of WFC on LDL-C and TC/HDL-C ratio but no significant impact of FWC on metabolic health. Since these metabolic risk factors cause CVD, understanding the physiological responses to occupational psychosocial stress could help create primary prevention interventions and assess their effects on workers' metabolic health.

Presenteeism, among desk workers with pain can be affected by musculoskeletal disabilities (MSDs), working styles, and gender. In this study, teleworkers were defined as those who teleworked >70% of the time at home, while others were defined as non-full teleworkers. This study aimed to (1) compare the magnitude of presenteeism among four groups: male and female teleworkers with pain and male and female non-full teleworkers with pain, and (2) create a regression model of presenteeism with 66 independent biopsychosocial variables for each group. Data were collected through an anonymous online survey. Presenteeism was evaluated using the work functioning impairment scale. The 66 independent biopsychosocial variables included four disability measures, namely, stiff neck/shoulders, low back pain, and upper or lower limb problems, along with other factors relevant to presenteeism in previous studies, such as age, body mass index, comorbidities, work-related variables, pain catastrophizing, and various psychological distress measures. Data from 1068 male non-full teleworkers, 1,043 female non-full teleworkers, 282 male teleworkers, and 307 female teleworkers were analyzed. Presenteeism was the highest among female teleworkers with pain. Furthermore, in all models, overall psychological distress, rather than the four MSD measures, was the primary contributing factor for presenteeism.

The association between doctors' long working hours and the seriousness of adverse events with high patient impact has not been fully confirmed. Most previous studies were based on work hour regulations using more than 80 hours per week as an indicator of long working hours. We aimed to assess the association using a shorter indicator as the cut-off for long working hours among hospital doctors including senior doctors. This cross-sectional study used 12,245 adverse event reports from the Japan Council for Quality Health Care. We defined long working hours as 55 hours or more in the week before the adverse event and assessed the association with the seriousness of adverse events with high patient impact. The results showed that doctors working 55 or more hours in the preceding week were more likely to be involved in serious adverse events than those working fewer hours (odds ratio (OR) 1.22, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.12-1.32). This association remained significant after adjusting for all covariates (OR 1.18, 95% CI: 1.08-1.28). Senior doctors were more likely to be involved in serious adverse events. Long working hours among doctors were associated with the seriousness of adverse events.

Societal demands mean that many companies operate throughout the day to provide services. The impact of night work on long-term health is not clear, but there is sufficient evidence for closer monitoring of this as a concern and industry is not sure what more they need to do about this potential problem. There are many health conditions and potential interventions to reduce risks from night working, but there is no clarity on how to design and implement intervention programmes for long-term health issues. This paper reports on a rapid review of 24 articles to examine how interventions can minimise long-term health risk from night work. The analysis has identified eight types of intervention that have been used in relation to seven types of long-term health conditions but has highlighted weaknesses in evaluation, in relation to the current knowledge of the implementation and effectiveness of the interventions for long-term health.  Commentary is provided on how researchers and industry practitioners need to think about risk in different ways, improve implementation of interventions through a systemic approach to work design and organisation, and employ more participatory approaches to embed cultural change in organisations.

We investigated the role of sleep and work hours on wellbeing among day- and shift workers. We tested a mediation-moderation hypothesis proposing that; 1) sleep would mediate the association between the work schedule and the impact of sleep/sleepiness on wellbeing; 2) work hours would moderate the link between work schedule and sleep. We made random phone calls to 1,162 participants and identified 172-day and 130 shift workers that worked ≥ 35-hours/week. The work schedule had a positive indirect effect on the impact of sleep/sleepiness via sleep duration (β=0.0511, SE=0.0309, [0.0008, 0.3219]. The relationship between shift work and sleep duration was negative (β=-0.35, SE=0.14, p<0.01), and sleep duration was negatively associated with a greater impact of sleep/sleepiness on wellbeing (β=-0.15, SE=0.06, p<0.02). The path between the work schedule and sleep duration was moderated by work hours; fewer work hours resulted in shift workers reporting a greater impact of sleep/sleepiness on wellbeing. The results support the mediation-moderation hypothesis. Work hours and sleep duration are key characteristics in work schedule design.

We aimed to investigate the associations of working hour characteristics based on the international and local definitions with sickness absence (SA) among airport security personnel. The payroll-based registry data of daily working hours for 2016-2019 at one airport was limited to those with ≥30 work shifts in a year (n=377-687 employees). The conditional Poisson model for incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was used for analyses. Based on the international definitions, only a few associations were found: each one-unit increase in weekly working hours and the number of consecutive working days were associated with a lower likelihood of SA. The local definitions were more consistently associated with SA: Each one-unit increase in shift length and time between shifts, higher variation in shift length, and the number of consecutive evening and night shifts were associated with a higher likelihood of SA. To conclude, especially the local definitions of working hour characteristics seem to be important limits for short SA. Thus, high variability of shift lengths and prolonged shifts could be avoided to reduce the risk of SA. Overall, keeping the working hours within any of the recommendations among airport security personnel could support well-being and health.

Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners are at an increased risk of mental disorders in addition to stress directly related to their business performance. However, steps to protect SME owners' mental health are lacking, and no occupational stress scale has been developed to accurately understand the real-world situation. Based on a nationwide internet survey of 1,000 Japanese SME owners aged 20-79 years with five or more employees, we developed a novel occupational stress scale for SME owners. The 43-item scale assesses job stress factors and modifying factors (individual, non-work, and buffering factors). The validity and reliability of the scale were verified. The job stress factors were unique among SME owners and differed from those of employees, with moderate positive correlations with both psychological distress and presenteeism. Further, the study revealed the roles of modifying factors; work-family conflict increased presenteeism and psychological distress, while self-care and social support decreased them. The findings provide important insights for assessing psychological stress among SME owners, informing future mental health intervention strategies among this population.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) caused substantial morbidity among occupationally active populations. However, data regarding the longitudinal burden of CVD were limited, particularly among school teachers. The objectives of our study were to estimate the incidence rate of CVD and determine its predictors among school teachers in Peninsular Malaysia through a prospective cohort study. We followed 14,046 eligible school teachers recruited between 2013 and 2014 until 31st December 2021. We accessed three computerised, country-level registries to determine incident CVD cases during the study period from 2013 to 2021. Baseline sociodemographic, lifestyle, work-related and clinical characteristics were recorded. Cox proportional hazard regression models with adjusted hazard ratio and 95% confidence interval were reported. With a median follow-up of 7.71 yr, we observed 209 incident CVD cases (or 195.7 CVD cases per 100,000 person-years). Male gender, age ≥40 yr old, Indian or others ethnicity (as compared to Chinese), family history of CVD, laboratory-confirmed diabetes mellitus, self-reported hypertension, high low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and high triglyceride were predictors for incident CVD among school teachers. Neither work-related nor lifestyle factors were significantly associated with incident CVD. Screening at-risk teachers for diabetes mellitus, hypertension or dyslipidemia is recommended to delay the onset or progression of CVD.

This study investigated association of Perceived Organization Support (POS) with diabetes treatment among workers. This prospective cohort study was conducted online, and parts of nations wide study stratified similarly with workers' characteristic in Japan. Samples were screened to those who had diabetes in the baseline years. Binary regression analysis and p for trend were used for statistical analysis. There were 1,203 participants with diabetes followed up regarding their treatment behavior. Higher POS were likely to seek appropriate diabetes treatment after adjustment with personal and occupational factors (p=0.032) but became marginally significant when adjusted with night shift status (p=0.051). Further analysis found that POS was only associated with diabetes treatment among workers with night shift. Higher POS was likely associated with proper diabetes treatment specifically among workers with night shift.