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Objective To examine age-dependent trends in weight and lifestyle changes in Japanese workers. Methods Using annual health examination data, 60,143 eligible Japanese workers aged 20 to 59 years were examined for their 2-year changes in weight and smoking, eating, exercise, drinking, and sleep habits. Results Young male workers aged 20 to 24 years showed the greatest weight gain and the highest incidence of unhealthy lifestyle habits. Multivariate analyses indicated that quitting "exercise less than two times/week," "walking less than 60 min/d," and "smoking everyday" contributed to weight gain to a considerable extent except in young female workers aged 20 to 24 years. Conclusions Greater weight gain associated with unhealthy lifestyle changes tended to occur in early rather than middle-to-old adulthood. It is important to deliver health promotion programs targeting young male workers.

To examine 1-year changes in stage of health behavior change and its associations with changes in health behavior and weight in a working population cohort.Using annual health examination data, 57,431 eligible Japanese workers aged 18 to 64 years were examined for their 1-year changes in stage of change, eating and exercise habits, and weight.The stages of change became polarized into the precontemplation and the action/maintenance (ie, post-action) and became stabilized with increasing age. The 1-year change in stage of change was accompanied by changes in eating and exercise habits and weight.The age-dependent tendency towards bipolarization and stabilization of stages of change suggested that workplace health promotion interventions for facilitating health behavior changes should be started at younger ages.

This study aimed to clarify whether work-related adverse events in cases involving compensation for mental disorders and suicide differ by sex and industry using a database containing all relevant cases reported from 2010 to 2014 in Japan.A total of 1362 eligible cases involving compensation for mental disorders (422 females and 940 males) were analyzed.Among males, 55.7% of cases were attributed to "long working hours." In both sexes, the frequencies of cases attributed to "long working hours" and other events differed significantly by industry. Among cases involving compensation for suicide, 71.4% were attributed to "long working hours."The frequency distribution of work-related adverse events differed significantly by sex and industry. These differences should be taken into consideration in the development of industry-specific preventive measures for occupational mental disorders.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of weight gain on cardiovascular risk factors among younger (25 to 44 years) and older (45 to 64 years) Japanese male workers in terms of population attributable risk percentage (PAR%). METHODS Using the 2008 and 2009 health examination data, 49,587 eligible male workers aged 25 to 64 years were examined for their 1-year changes in body weight and cardiovascular risk factors. RESULTS Mean weight change was significantly greater than zero in the younger group (+0.27 kg) but not in the older group (-0.08 kg). The PAR% due to weight gain for the development and maintenance of cardiovascular risk factors was estimated at 21.8% and 5.4%, respectively, in the younger and older groups. CONCLUSIONS The age-stratified PAR% estimates suggest that weight gain prevention programs will make greater contributions to cardiovascular health in younger than in older male workers.