Publications by authors named "Yasumasa Otsuka"

Objectives: This systematic review aimed to assess the association between psychosocial factors in the workplace and menstrual abnormalities or fertility, focusing on literature implementing a prospective cohort design.

Methods: We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and Japan Medical Abstracts Society electronic databases for studies published from inception to February 26, 2020, and updated the search in PubMed on May 29, 2024. Inclusion criteria were (P) adult female workers (over 18 years old), (E) presence of adverse psychosocial factors at work, (C) absence of adverse psychosocial factors at work, and (O) any menstrual cycle disorders, menstrual-related symptoms, or fertility issues.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text outlines the importance of participatory organizational interventions for improving psychosocial working conditions and highlights a lack of systematic reviews on their impact on mental health and work performance.
  • The study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis using specific criteria (PICO) to evaluate the effects of these interventions, focusing on workers’ mental health and job performance.
  • Researchers will search multiple electronic databases for relevant studies, independently assess study quality, and conduct statistical analyses to determine the overall effects and potential biases in the findings.
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This study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Overwork Climate Scale. Japanese workers were invited to participate in online surveys at baseline and 1-month follow-up. The Overwork Climate Scale was translated into Japanese, according to international guidelines.

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Objectives: Since the 1990s, overseas research on public service motivation (PSM), a motivation unique to public employees, has been ongoing. However, only recently has empirical studies on PSM in Japan begun, it has been suggested that the PSM scales developed overseas cannot be applied directly to Japan. This study aimed to examine the constructs of PSM in Japan, develop a scale to measure PSM, and verify its reliability and validity.

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Objectives: Recently, occupational health specialists (OHS) are expected to exert leadership to develop high-quality occupational health activities. This study aimed to develop and investigate the reliability and validity of a scale to measure leadership preparation among OHS (The University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health [TOMH] Leadership Checklist; TLC).

Methods: Based on literature reviews and interviews among OHS, we created potential items consisting of 54 items with six factors (10 items for self-awareness, 10 items for situational awareness, 9 items for vision, 12 items for mindset, 3 items for performance of one's duties, and 10 items for relationship-building).

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Objective: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to evaluate the prospective effect of adverse work-related psychosocial factors on increases in inflammatory markers.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, and the Japan Medical Abstracts Society database. Studies were eligible for inclusion if they examined associations between work-related psychosocial factors and inflammatory markers (interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and C-reactive protein), used longitudinal or prospective cohort designs, were conducted among workers, were original articles written in English or Japanese, and were published up to 2017 for the first search, October 2020 for the second, and November 2022 for the third.

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Objectives: This study aimed to examine the prospective association among objectively measured average working hours (AWHs), frequency of long working hours (FLWHs; defined as ≥205 working hours/month (≥45 hours/week)) for 6 months, and workers' self-reported psychological and physical health.

Methods: The study included 15 143 workers from 5 Japanese companies. We collected monthly attendance records over 6 months before distributing a questionnaire survey on psychological/physical stress responses and work-related demographics.

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(1) Background: Although many previous studies have found an association between burnout and emotions, none have examined the association between emotions detected by an emotion cognition system and burnout. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between the emotions detected by the emotion cognition system and burnout among workers. We hypothesized that burnout survivors are less likely to express their emotions as facial expressions.

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The Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) is used widely in occupational health studies and practice. Summarizing scientific production based on measurement is crucial. This study aimed to systematically review observational studies that used the BJSQ and the New BJSQ to show their usability.

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Article Synopsis
  • Participatory organizational interventions enhance occupational safety and health but lack a widely accepted definition, prompting a study to establish one.
  • The researchers developed a draft definition based on existing literature and refined it through multiple discussions and feedback from 15 experts in occupational safety and health.
  • The final proposed definition includes planned actions targeting working conditions to promote the well-being of all workers, emphasizing that ideally, all workers should be involved in all intervention steps, although elected representatives may participate in some cases.
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Introduction: Workplace environment, especially psychosocial factors at work such as job strain, workplace social support, and shift work, may affect the menstrual abnormalities and fertility of female workers. However, the association between psychosocial factors at work and menstrual abnormalities or fertility is not well understood. To address this relationship, we will conduct a systematic review and a meta-analysis of the literature that has utilized a longitudinal or prospective cohort design.

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Although an increasing number of studies on psychological safety at workplaces has been conducted in both western and eastern countries, there are few empirically validated measures in Japan. Our purpose was to investigate the validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the Psychological Safety Scale. Japanese workers were invited to participate in online surveys at baseline and at one-month follow-up (N=320).

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Previously, we reported that the participatory workplace intervention was effective in reducing stress-related inflammatory markers among 31 Japanese female nurses. During the analysis, we recognized that our intervention might have increased prosocial behaviors like giving social support to others in some participants. Based on this assumption, we ran a secondary analysis, which examined the effect of giving social support on inflammatory markers, autonomic nervous activity (ANA), and perceived job stress (PJS) before and after the intervention.

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Purpose: We aimed to examine the prospective associations of monthly working hours measured in a month, the 6-month averaged hours, and the frequency of long working hours (≥ 205 h/month) during the past 6 months with health indicators.

Methods: This study included 6,806 Japanese company workers (response rate = 86.6%).

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Although participatory workplace improvement programs are known to provide favorable effects on high stress occupations like nursing, no studies have confirmed its effect using biomarkers. The aim of this study was to determine whether a participatory workplace improvement program would decrease stress-related symptoms as evaluated by biomarkers and self-reported stress among hospital nurses. Three actions to alleviate job stress, which were determined through focus group interviews and voting, were undertaken for two months.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers reviewed 5,450 articles and identified 39 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that met their criteria, organizing the types of interventions into six categories including physical activity and psychological methods.
  • * The meta-analysis of 31 of these studies indicated a significant positive effect of the interventions on SWB, with a standardized mean difference of 0.51, suggesting that various strategies effectively enhance the well-being of employees.
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Table 3 of the above paper appeared incorrectly in print. Percentage figures on the table were inadvertently listed as negative values. These errors were corrected in online versions of this paper, as shown below.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a Japanese version of the Servant Leadership Scale and to clarify the relationship between servant leadership (SL) and well-being among Japanese workers.

Methods: After the Japanese version of the SLS (SLS-J) and of its short form (SLS-J-short) were developed in conformity with the guidelines (Wild et al., 2005), a web-based survey was administered to 516 Japanese employees (20 or older and have a supervisor).

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This study investigated the correlation between objective and subjective working hours (OWH and SWH, respectively) and their relation to the workers' health. The study included 6,806 workers of a Japanese company (response rate=86.6%).

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Introduction: The world's population is rapidly ageing, and health among older people is thus an important issue. Several previous studies have reported an association between adverse psychosocial factors at work before retirement and postretirement health. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to examine the association between psychosocial factors at work and health outcomes after retirement, based on a synthesis of well-designed prospective studies.

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Although the eudemonic perspective seems to be a promising in considering vocational identity among working population, well-being at work has been discussed primarily in terms of subjective/hedonic well-being. This study aimed to develop a new tool to measure eudemonic well-being at work (The University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health [TOMH] well-being 24 scale)and investigate its validity in a collectivist culture. Two online surveys were conducted with a total of 1,760 workers in Japan.

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Objectives: The employee participatory approach is an effective method for improving work environments. However, there are some challenges in executing this method in each workplace because of such factors as a lack of employee interest or motivation to commit to the activity. Research was conducted to clarify readiness factors to improve the workplace environment using an employee participatory approach.

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Article Synopsis
  • Chronic inflammation is linked to various diseases, including cardiovascular and mental health disorders, and the immune system's balance may be influenced by work-related psychosocial factors.
  • A systematic review and meta-analysis will investigate the relationship between these psychosocial factors and inflammatory markers, focusing on studies from several databases published up to 2017.
  • The study will involve 14 researchers handling the selection, data extraction, and quality assessment of included studies, and the findings will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.
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The study objectives were to develop a Japanese-language version of the Feedback Environment Scale (FES) that is used, mainly in the West, as a multifaceted instrument to evaluate the workplace feedback environment, and to test its reliability and validity in the Japanese workplace. The FES (comprising Supervisor and Coworker FES) was translated into Japanese and reviewed through a back-translation process involving the original author to produce the FES-J. Data on 416 individuals working at Japanese companies obtained through internet research were used to investigate FES-J reliability (internal consistency) and validity (confirmatory factor analysis and correlation analysis).

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