Spa resort use and health-related quality of life, sleep, sickness absence and hospital admission: the Japanese civil servants study.

Objective: To examine whether spa resort use is associated with the health of Japanese employees.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Participants: 3341 employees (2280 males and 1061 females) aged 20-65 in local government in Japan.

Main Outcome Measures: The physical and mental component summary scores (PCS and MCS) of the Short Form 36 (SF-36), sleep quality as measured by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), sickness leave (> or =7 days in the previous year), and hospital admission in the previous year.

Result: The PCS and MCS increased with the frequency of spa resort use in men and women. Less frequent use was associated with poor sleep quality for men and women and sickness leave for men. There was no significant relationship between use frequency and hospital admission.

Conclusions: Spa resort use may have beneficial effects on physical and particularly mental health. Longitudinal research is necessary to clarify the causality.