Influence of Health Behaviors and Occupational Stress on Prediabetic State among Male Office Workers

Salutogenesis intervention improves cardio-cerebrovascular health in at-risk office workers: A quasi-experimental study

OBJECTIVE

Cardio-cerebrovascular disease is the major cause of work-related deaths. Salutogenesis indicates individual differences in health levels occur owing to differences in the sense of coherence (SOC). A salutogenesis-based intervention may promote cardio-cerebrovascular health at work. This study examined the effects of a SOC promotion program based on salutogenesis.

DESIGN

Quasi-experimental study.

SAMPLE

Fifty-six office workers who were above the "low risk" of cardio-cerebrovascular disease from two workplaces were included in the final analysis.

MEASUREMENTS

Data collected pre- and postintervention. To determine the intervention's effectiveness, repeated-measures analysis of variance was used.

INTERVENTION

The intervention group was provided with the SOC promotion program, whereas the control group was provided with educational materials alone for 12 weeks.

RESULTS

Generalized resistance resources (GRRs; knowledge of cardio-cerebrovascular disease prevention, stress-coping strategies, and social support) and SOC significantly improved in the intervention group. The intervention group showed significant improvements in occupational stress, physical activity, dietary behavior, total cholesterol level, fasting glucose level, hemoglobin A1C level, body mass index, waist circumference, diastolic and systolic blood pressure, and cardio-cerebrovascular risk.

CONCLUSIONS

Systematic salutogenesis-based SOC promotion programs should be established to enhance the cardio-cerebrovascular health of office workers at-risk of cardio-cerebrovascular diseases.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Trial Registration Number is KCT0007029. The date of registration is February 23, 2022.

Job Tension and Emotional Sensitivity to COVID-19 Public Messaging and Risk Perception

During the COVID-19 pandemic, government social marketing messages support strategies of suppression (often stay-at-home orders or lockdowns) and/or mitigation (through testing, isolation, and tracing). Success at lowering the virus reproduction rate (R₀) depends on social marketing messaging that rapidly changes behaviors. This study explores a potential side effect of a successful antivirus public health messaging campaign, when employees are back at work but the virus threat has not disappeared, that leads to on-the-job stress. The authors surveyed office employees in Shanghai, the People's Republic of China, where a nearly 2-month COVID-19 quarantine ended in late March 2020 and work locations reopened with strong public health messaging to encourage cooperation with continued virus spread suppression strategies-an approach likely to be followed in numerous countries. This study examines the relationship of pandemic public messaging sensitivity with tension and negative emotions on the job. Canonical correlation analysis is used with a sample of 1154 respondents, 4 predictor variables (reference group, self-regulation, media, and risk), and 2 criterion variables (negative emotions and job tension). Results show employees are differentially affected by the pandemic background noise. Those more sensitive to social-level virus risks and more open to reference group influence report increased levels of negative emotions and work tension.

Negative emotions in community-dwelling adults with prediabetes and hypertension

Objective

The purpose of this study was to investigate negative emotions and factors related to the risk of mental disorders in individuals with prediabetes and hypertension.

Methods

A total of 504 community-dwelling adult men and women in Suzhou, China, were enrolled and questionnaires used to obtain sociodemographic data, anxiety and depression scores, and current status of common metabolic indicators, including blood glucose level and blood pressure.

Results

Anxiety and depression scores in participants with prediabetes and hypertension were significantly higher than those in participants with normal blood glucose levels and normal blood pressure. Correlation analysis revealed that age, sex, smoking, duration of disease, physical activity, blood pressure and fasting plasma glucose levels were key factors accelerating the progression to both anxiety and depression in all participants.

Conclusions

More attention should be paid to negative emotions in individuals with prediabetes and hypertension. These findings could help to inform health providers in developing interventions for this population.

Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease Risk by Socioeconomic Status (SES) of Workers Using National Health Information Database

The socioeconomic status (SES) and health behaviors of workers are associated with the risks of developing obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and other cardiovascular diseases. Herein, we investigated the factors influencing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk based on the SES of male and female workers. This cross-sectional analysis used the National Health Information Database to assess the associations between gender, SES (income level, residential area), health behaviors, and CVD-related health status of workers, through multinomial logistic regression. Upon analysis of a large volume of data on workers during 2016, the smoking and drinking trends of male and female workers were found to differ, causing different odds ratio (OR) tendencies of the CVD risk. Also, while for male workers, higher ORs of obesity or abdominal obesity were associated with higher incomes or residence in metropolitan cities, for female workers, they were associated with lower incomes or residence in rural areas. Additionally, among the factors influencing CVD risk, lower income and residence in rural areas were associated with higher CVD risk for male and female workers. The study findings imply the importance of developing gender-customized intervention programs to prevent CVD, due to gender-specific associations between CVD-related health status and health behaviors according to SES.

Association between Dietary Quality and Prediabetes based on the Diet Balance Index

Dietary quality is an important factor influencing prediabetes, but few studies have applied the Chinese Diet Balance Index (DBI-16) to evaluate the dietary quality of individuals with prediabetes and explore the associations between dietary quality and prediabetes. In our study, the lower-bound score, higher-bound score and diet quality distance, were respectively calculated to assess dietary quality based on each food group. Logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) of unfavorable dietary quality leading to prediabetes in every subgroup. The results were shown that individuals with prediabetes had excessive intake in the categories of cereals, salt and inadequate intake in vegetables, fish and diet variety than participants without prediabetes (all P < 0.01). Unfavourable dietary quality was significantly associated with an increased risk of prediabetes (OR: 1.45, 95%CI: 1.29-1.63), especially among the subjects who lived in rural areas (OR: 1.63, 95%CI: 1.25-1.76), those who had abdominal obesity (OR: 1.58, 95%CI: 1.36-1.85), those who smoked (OR: 1.58, 95%CI: 1.30-1.93), those who consumed alcohol (OR: 1.57, 95%CI: 1.28-1.93) and those who did not drink tea (OR: 1.64, 95%CI: 1.42-1.88). In Conclusion, unfavourable dietary quality was significantly associated with an increased risk of prediabetes.

Mentally tiring work and type 2 diabetes in women: a 22-year follow-up study

Hypothesis Previous work suggested no or inconsistent associations between components of work-related stress and type 2 diabetes risk, but suggested sex-specific differences should be further investigated, as women potentially had higher risks. Methods We analyzed data from 73 517 women, mostly teachers, from the E3N cohort study followed for 22 years (1992-2014), to study the association between mentally tiring work, used as a proxy of job demands, and type 2 diabetes risk. Univariate and multivariable Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% confidence intervals. Results A total of 4187 incident cases of type 2 diabetes cases were observed. There was a higher type 2 diabetes risk for women with a 'Very mentally tiring work' when compared to women with 'Little or not mentally tiring work' (HR = 1.21 (1.09-1.35)). This association was independent of unhealthy lifestyle and traditional metabolic factors. An interaction between mentally tiring work and BMI was detected (P < 0.0001), with a stronger association being observed in non-overweight women, HR = 1.26 (1.08-1.47) vs HR = 1.14 (0.98, 1.32), in overweight women. Conclusions We observed an increased risk of type 2 diabetes associated with mentally tiring work, used as a proxy of job demands. These observational results suggest the importance of taking into consideration the potential long-term metabolic impact of work-related stress for women working in a demanding environment. Increased support for such women should be investigated in intervention studies.