Details of a Researcher - Shimazu, Akihito

Papers - Shimazu, Akihito

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座談会働き方改革とコンサルティング

島津明人, 山本勲, 吉川徹, 春木宥子, 森晃爾

安全衛生コンサルタント : 一般社団法人日本労働安全衛生コンサルタント会機関誌 (日本労働安全衛生コンサルタント会) 38 ( 126 ) 6 - 26 2018.04

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted

Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Stress Check Program : Evidence from Workplace Surveys

井上彰臣, 川上憲人, 島津明人, 堤明純

ストレス科学 = The Japanese journal of stress sciences : 日本ストレス学会誌 (日本ストレス学会) 32 ( 3 ) 235 - 246 2018.03

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 1349-4813

ストレスチェック制度　実施方法と制度導入に関する科学的根拠　ストレスチェック制度の効果評価　事業場調査から

井上彰臣, 川上憲人, 島津明人, 堤明純

ストレス科学 (日本ストレス学会) 32 ( 3 ) 235 - 246 2018.03

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 1349-4813

我々は、2015(平成27)年12月1日より義務化された「ストレスチェック制度」の導入による労働者の心理的な負担(仕事のストレス要因、周囲のサポート、心身のストレス反応)の変化を定量的に評価し、本制度が労働者のメンタルヘルス不調の未然防止(一次予防)に寄与しているかを明らかにすることを目的に、3年間(2015〜2017年度)の研究期間において、3つの事業場を対象に、労働者に対する自記式質問紙調査および産業医に対する面接調査を実施した。その結果、必ずしも「ストレスチェック制度」の導入によって、労働者の心理的な負担が軽減されたとはいえなかった。本研究では、その要因を詳細に検討することはできなかったが、集団分析の結果に基づく職場環境改善活動が実施されなかったことや、人事異動に伴うメンバー構成の変化、デフレーションに伴う企業業績の悪化などが結果に影響を及ぼした可能性が考えられた。今後、このような各事業場の背景事情を踏まえながら、「ストレスチェック制度」による労働者の心理的な負担の経年変化をみていく必要がある。(著者抄録)

Effect of the National Stress Check Program on mental health among workers in Japan: A 1-year retrospective cohort study

Imamura K., Asai Y., Watanabe K., Tsutsumi A., Shimazu A., Inoue A., Hiro H., Odagiri Y., Yoshikawa T., Yoshikawa E., Kawakami N.

Journal of Occupational Health (Journal of Occupational Health) 60 ( 4 ) 298 - 306 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 13419145

© 2018 Japan Society for Occupational Health. Objectives: This retrospective cohort study evaluated the impact of the Stress Check Program, a recently introduced national policy and program aimed at reducing psychological distress among Japanese workers. Methods: A baseline survey was conducted from November 2015 to February 2016, the period when Japan began enforcing the Stress Check Program. A oneyear follow-up survey was conducted in December 2016. In the follow-up survey, two exposure variables were collected: having taken the annual stress survey, and experiencing an improvement in the psychosocial work environment. Psychological distress was assessed using the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ) at baseline and 1-year follow-up. The two exposure variables were used to define four groups: "Neither", "Stress survey (SS) only ", " Psychosocial work environment improvement (WI) only", and "Both". BJSQ results were analyzed using repeated measures general linear modeling (GLM). Results: The study included 2,492 participants: 1,342 in the "Neither" group, 1,009 in the "SS only" group, 76 in the "WI only" group, and 65 in the "Both" group. Overall time-group interaction effects were not significant. The "Both" group showed significantly greater improvements in psychological distress than the "Neither" group (p = 0.02) at the 1-year follow-up, although the effect size was small (d = -0.14). Conclusions: Combination of the annual stress survey and improvement in psychosocial work environment may have been effective in reducing psychological distress in workers, although the effect size was small.

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A Japanese Stress Check Program screening tool predicts employee long-term sickness absence: a prospective study.

Akizumi Tsutsumi, Akihito Shimazu, Hisashi Eguchi, Akiomi Inoue, Norito Kawakami

Journal of occupational health (WILEY) 60 ( 1 ) 55 - 63 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 13419145

OBJECTIVES: On December 1, 2015, the Japanese government launched the Stress Check Program, a new occupational health policy to screen employees for high psychosocial stress in the workplace. As only weak evidence exists for the effectiveness of the program, we sought to estimate the risk of stress-associated long-term sickness absence as defined in the program manual. METHODS: Participants were 7356 male and 7362 female employees in a financial service company who completed the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ). We followed them for 1 year and used company records to identify employees with sickness absence of 1 month or longer. We defined high-risk employees using the BJSQ and criteria recommended by the program manual. We used the Cox proportional regression model to evaluate the prospective association between stress and long-term sickness absence. RESULTS: During the follow-up period, we identified 34 male and 35 female employees who took long-term sickness absence. After adjustment for age, length of service, job type, position, and post-examination interview, hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals) for incident long-term sickness absence in high-stress employees were 6.59 (3.04-14.25) for men and 2.77 (1.32-5.83) for women. The corresponding population attributable risks for high stress were 23.8% (10.3-42.6) for men and 21.0% (4.6-42.1) for women. CONCLUSIONS: During the 1-year follow-up, employees identified as high stress (as defined by the Stress Check Program manual) had significantly elevated risks for long-term sickness absence.

The Japanese Workplace PERMA-Profiler: A validation study among Japanese workers

Watanabe K., Kawakami N., Shiotani T., Adachi H., Matsumoto K., Imamura K., Matsumoto K., Yamagami F., Fusejima A., Muraoka T., Kagami T., Shimazu A., Kern M.

Journal of Occupational Health (Journal of Occupational Health) 60 ( 5 ) 383 - 393 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 13419145

© Article author(s). Objectives: Although well-being at work is important for occupational health, multi-dimensional workplace well-being measures do not exist for Japanese workers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the validity of the Japanese version of the Workplace PERMA-Profiler. Methods: Japanese workers completed online surveys at baseline (N = 310) and 1 month later (N = 100) . The Workplace PERMA-Profiler was translated according to international guidelines. Job and life satisfaction, work engagement, psychological distress, work-related psychosocial factors, and work performance were measured as comparisons for convergent validity. Cronbach's alphas, Intra-class Correlation Coefficients (ICCs), and measurement errors were calculated for the reliability, and the validity of the measure was tested by correlational analyses and confirmatory factor analysis. Results: A total of 310 (baseline) and 86 (follow-up) workers responded and were included in the analyses. Cronbach's alphas and ICCs of the Japanese Workplace PERMA-Profiler ranged from 0.75 to 0.96. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the 5-factor model demonstrated a marginally acceptable fit (χ2 (80) = 351.30, CFI = 0.892, TLI = 0.858, RMSEA = 0.105, SRMR = 0.051). Overall well-being and the five PERMA domains had moderate-to-strong correlations with job satisfaction, psychological distress (inversely), and workrelated factors. Conclusions: The Japanese version of the Workplace PERMA-Profiler demonstrated adequate reliability and validity. This measure could be useful to assess well-being at work, promote well-being research among Japanese workers, and address the problem of definition for well-being in further studies.

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Group Analysis of the Stress Check Survey and Improvement of Work Environment: Towards a Strategic Use of Stress Check Program

SHIMAZU Akihito

Japanese Journal of Behavioral Medicine (The Japanese Society of Behavioral Medicine) 23 ( 2 ) 98 - 102 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 1341-6790

The Japanese government has launched a new occupational health policy called the Stress Check Program.In the program, employers are obligated to analyze the Stress Check data in relevant groups and to utilize the data to improve the psychosocial work environment. This article discuss about how to utilize Stress Check Program to achieve healthy workplaces. I first introduced the concept and procedures of work environment improvement in the program and, then, moved to critical review of them. Finally, I illustrated a strategic use of Stress Check Program to achieve really healthy workplaces.

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ストレスチェックの戦略的活用 : 職場環境改善から活性化対策へ (特集職場のメンタルヘルスは今)

島津明人

心と社会 (日本精神衛生会) 49 ( 3 ) 36 - 43 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 0023-2807

Facilitating recovery from fatigue at work

高橋正也, 久保智英, 井澤修平, 三木圭一, 原谷隆史, 土屋政雄, 倉林るみい, 島津明人, 田中克俊, 池田大樹

労働安全衛生総合研究所特別研究報告 (労働安全衛生総合研究所) ( 48 ) 1 - 10 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 1882-8329

勤務間インターバルと疲労回復に関する縦断研究 (労働者の疲労回復を促進する対策に関する研究)

高橋正也, 久保智英, 井澤修平, 三木圭一, 原谷隆史, 土屋政雄, 倉林るみい, 島津明人, 田中克俊, 池田大樹

労働安全衛生総合研究所特別研究報告 (労働安全衛生総合研究所) ( 48 ) 19 - 24 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 1882-8329

Generation of presentation motion using sequence to sequence model

SHIMAZU Akihito, HIEIDA Chie, NAGAI Takayuki, NAKAMURA Tomoaki, TAKEDA Yuki, HARA Takenori, NAKAGAWA Osamu, MAEDA Tsuyoshi

Proceedings of the Annual Conference of JSAI (The Japanese Society for Artificial Intelligence) 2018 ( 0 ) 2G103 - 2G103 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted

<p>In the presentation, gestures play a very important role as a means of improving the information transmission effect. Moreover, it was shown that the movement expressing the enthusiasm and intention of the presenter in an unconscious manner affects the success of the presentation and the impression on the audience. For these reasons, it is required for presentation robots to perform such movements; however, manual design of these movements is not an easy task. In this research, we propose a method to learn relationship between speech prosodic information and motion using a sequence to sequence model, and directly generate appropriate motions from prosodic information. This paper also proposes a method for generating motions representing meanings of specific words.</p>

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Positive Mental Health in the Workplace and Behavioral Medicine:―Healthy Workplaces and Employees in Terms of Work Engagement―

Shimazu Akihito

Japanese Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine (Japanese Society of Psychosomatic Medicine) 58 ( 3 ) 261 - 266 2018

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 0385-0307

<p>In recent years, socioeconomic conditions around workers and organizations have rapidly been changing, such as changes in industry structure and working style, and advancement of information technology. These changes of working condition call for being more healthy and productive from workers. This article focuses on work engagement, as a key concept to achieve both health promotion and productivity improvement. I first define work engagement which consists of vigor, dedication, and absorption, and introduced the theoretical model of Job Demands-Resources model which integrates antecedents and outcomes of work engagement. Then, I referred to strategies to achieve a healthy work place and employees in terms of behavioral medicine.</p>

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Pokémon GO and psychological distress, physical complaints, and work performance among adult workers: A retrospective cohort study

Watanabe K., Kawakami N., Imamura K., Inoue A., Shimazu A., Yoshikawa T., Hiro H., Asai Y., Odagiri Y., Yoshikawa E., Tsutsumi A.

Scientific Reports (Scientific Reports) 7 ( 1 ) 10758 2017.12

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 2045-2322

© 2017 The Author(s). The effects of Pokémon GO, a new mobile game application which utilizes augmented reality, on risky behavior and health have already been discussed in anecdotal evidence. However, there have been no studies about its effects on mental health. This study investigated the relationships between Pokémon GO and psychological distress from an existing workers' cohort in Japan. Online surveys were conducted to 3,915 full-time workers, at baseline (Nov 26, 2015-Feb 18, 2016) and at follow-up (Dec 1-4, 2016), using a self-report questionnaire. Pokémon GO players were defined as participants who had played Pokémon GO for one month or longer. Psychological distress was measured using validated scales. Of the completers, 246 (9.7%) had continued to play Pokémon GO. They were significantly younger than non-players. From the results of the general linear modeling, improvement in psychological distress was significantly greater among Pokémon GO players than among non-players (p = 0.025). Cohen's d for the difference in psychological distress was -0.20 (95% CI, -0.33, -0.07). Pokémon GO may be effective for improving psychological distress among workers. Although its effect size is small, the game could have positive effects on the mental health of the adult working population.

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Working conditions and individual differences are weakly associated with Workaholism: A 2-3-year prospective study of shift-working nurses

Andreassen C., Bakker A., Bjorvatn B., Moen B., Magerøy N., Shimazu A., Hetland J., Pallesen S.

Frontiers in Psychology (Frontiers in Psychology) 8 ( NOV ) 2045 2017.11

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 1664-1078

© 2017 Andreassen, Bakker, Bjorvatn, Moen, Magerøy, Shimazu, Hetland and Pallesen. This study focuses on individual differences and the demand-support-control model in relation to workaholism. We hypothesized that unfavorable working conditions (high job demands, low job control/decision latitude, and low social support at work) and individual differences concerning sleep/wake-related variables (high flexibility, high morningness, and low languidity) would be related to workaholism measured 2-3 years later. Survey data stemmed from a prospective cohort of shift-working nurses (N = 1,308). The results showed that social support at work was negatively related to workaholism, whereas job demands were positively related to workaholism. Flexibility in terms of time for working/sleeping was also positively related to workaholism. The analyses further revealed that workaholism was inversely associated with age as well as having a child or having a child move in. Conjointly, the independent variables explained 6.4% of the variance in workaholism, while their relative importance was small overall. After controlling for all other independent variables, high job demands had the strongest relationship (small-to-medium) with workaholism. This implies that less pressure from the external environment to work excessively hard may prevent an increase in workaholic behaviors. Overall, the study adds to our understanding of the relationships between working conditions, individual differences, and workaholism.

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Stress check program and support for self-care

島津明人

医学のあゆみ (医歯薬出版) 263 ( 3 ) 246 - 250 2017.10

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 0039-2359

ワーク・エンゲイジメントを高める組織づくり : 人事院「平成二八年度年次報告書」に寄せて

島津明人

人事院月報 : 公務員関係情報誌 (日経印刷) 70 ( 10 ) 2 - 5 2017.10

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 0446-4893

The relationship between work engagement and psychological distress of hospital nurses and the perceived communication behaviors of their nurse managers: A cross-sectional survey

Kunie K., Kawakami N., Shimazu A., Yonekura Y., Miyamoto Y.

International Journal of Nursing Studies (International Journal of Nursing Studies) 71 115 - 124 2017.06

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 00207489

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Background Communication between nurse managers and nurses is important for mental health of hospital nurses. Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between managers’ communication behaviors toward nurses, and work engagement and psychological distress among hospital nurses using a multilevel model. Design The present study was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Settings The participants were nurses working at three hospitals in Japan. Participants A total of 906 nurses from 38 units participated in the present study. The units with small staff sizes and participants with missing entries in the questionnaire were excluded. The data for 789 nurses from 36 questionnaire survey units were analyzed. Method A survey using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire asked staff nurses about communication behaviors of their immediate manager and their own levels of work engagement, psychological distress, and other covariates. Three types of manager communication behaviors (i.e., direction-giving, empathetic, and meaning-making language) were assessed using the Motivating Language scale; and the scores of the respondents were averaged for each unit to calculate unit-level scores. Work engagement and psychological distress were measured using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the K6 scale, respectively. The association of communication behaviors by unit-level managers with work engagement and psychological distress among nurses was analyzed using two-level hierarchical linear modeling. Results The unit-level scores for all three of the manager communication behaviors were significantly and positively associated with work engagement among nurses (p < 0.05). This association was smaller and non-significant after adjusting for the psychosocial work environment. The individual levels of all three of the manager communication behaviors were also significantly and positively associated with work engagement (p < 0.05). None of the three manager communication behaviors was significantly associated with psychological distress (p > 0.05). Conclusion Motivating language by unit-level managers might be positively associated with work engagement among hospital nurses, which is mediated through the better psychosocial work environment of the unit.

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Workplace social capital and the onset of major depressive episode among workers in Japan: A 3-year prospective cohort study

Sakuraya A., Imamura K., Inoue A., Tsutsumi A., Shimazu A., Takahashi M., Totsuzaki T., Kawakami N.

Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health) 71 ( 6 ) 606 - 612 2017.06

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 0143005X

Background This study examined the prospective association of workplace social capital (WSC) with major depressive episode (MDE) among Japanese employees. Methods A 3-year prospective cohort study was conducted among 1058 employees from a private thinktank company who participated in a baseline survey; after excluding those with MDE in the past 12 months, 929 were followed up. WSC at baseline was measured using a 3-item scale. MDE was assessed at baseline and at follow-up every year, by using a web-based, selfadministered version of the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (WHO-CIDI) 3.0 depression section, based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition: Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR)/DSM-5 criteria. Cox discretetime hazards analyses were used to estimate HRs and 95% CIs, adjusting for covariates. Results A group with middle-level WSC scores had the lowest risk of MDE after being fully adjusted (HR 0.34, 95% CI 0.14 to 0.84, p=0.02). The relationship between WSC and MDE was U-shaped, although a nonlinear model fit better than a linear model, with only marginally statistical significance (p=0.06). Dichotomised and continuous variables of WSC scores were significantly and negatively associated with MDE (p=0.03 and p<0.01, respectively). Conclusions The current study replicated a previous finding from Finland that WSC was a protective factor of the onset of MDE in Japan. The slightly U-shaped relationship, that is, the group with high WSC having a small elevated risk of MDE, may reflect a dark side of WSC in a country with collectivity-oriented and hierarchy-oriented culture, such as Japan.

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Sakuraya A., Watanabe K., Kawakami N., Imamura K., Ando E., Asai Y., Eguchi H., Kobayashi Y., Nishida N., Arima H., Shimazu A., Tsutsumi A.

BMJ Open (BMJ Open) 7 ( 6 ) e016716 2017.06

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 2044-6055

© 2017 Article author(s). All rights reserved. Introduction: Metabolic syndrome is an important public health target because of its high prevalence worldwide. Work-related psychosocial factors have been identified as determinants of metabolic syndrome components. However, there have been no systematic reviews or meta-analyses conducted to evaluate the relationship between work-related psychosocial factors and metabolic syndrome as an aggregated cluster. The aim of this study is to examine this association from published prospective studies. Methods and analysis: The systematic review and meta-analysis will be conducted using published studies that will be identified from electronic databases (ie, PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES and Japan Medical Abstracts Society). Studies that (1) examined the association between work-related psychosocial factors and the onset of metabolic syndrome, (2) had a longitudinal or prospective cohort design, (3) were conducted among workers, (4) provided sufficient data for calculating ORs or relative risk with a 95% CI, (5) were published as original articles written in English or Japanese, and (6) having been published until the end of 2016 will be included. Study selection, data collection, quality assessment and statistical syntheses will be conducted based on discussions among investigators. Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval was not required for this study because it was based on published studies. The results and findings of this study will be submitted and published in a scientific peer-reviewed journal. The findings from this study could be useful for assessing metabolic syndrome risk factors in the workplace, and determining approaches for prevention of metabolic syndrome in the future.

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Not if, but how they differ: A meta-analytic test of the nomological networks of burnout and engagement

Goering D., Shimazu A., Zhou F., Wada T., Sakai R.

Burnout Research (Burnout Research) 5 21 - 34 2017.06

Research paper (scientific journal), Accepted, ISSN 22130586

© 2017 The distinctiveness between work engagement and burnout has long been an issue of debate. To address this issue, we use a recently developed technique by Yu et al. (2016) to specify and test a meta-analytic structural equation model (MASEM) which accounts for the non-independence between engagement and burnout as well as the simultaneous effects of all relationships in our model, based on job demands-resources (JD-R) theory. We also estimate the degree of variability of these relationships across subpopulations. We report the findings as a distribution of effect size estimates—each estimate in the distribution representing the true effect size for a potential subpopulation—around the mean average estimate for each relationship in the model. Based on the findings, we conclude that overall burnout and engagement display empirically distinct relationships within the JD-R model (i.e., they are not antipodal), particularly in terms of antecedents. Perhaps most interestingly, rather than a polar opposite pattern of relationships, challenge demands have a similarly positive relationship to both burnout (ß = 0.35, SD = 0.10) and engagement (ß = 0.35, SD = 0.08), suggesting that challenge demands simultaneously lead—in equal force—to both engagement and burnout. In addition, the distributions of effect sizes are nearly identical for both relationships, indicating that this holds true for nearly all subpopulations. As expected, hindrance demands have a positive relationship with burnout (ß = 0.31, SD = 0.10) and have a relatively weak, negative relationship on average to engagement (ß = −0.07, SD = 0.07); work resources have a negative relationship with burnout (ß = −0.15, SD = 0.06) and are positively related to engagement, but in absolute terms they are a stronger predictor of engagement (ß = 0.33, SD = 0.05). In terms of outcomes, burnout and engagement predict a variety of behavioral and attitudinal outcomes differentially from one another, although the differences are less clear due to wide variation in effect sizes in the population. Future research directions are discussed alongside practical implications.

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