EFFECT OF SHIFT WORK ON MENTAL STATE OF FACTORY WORKERS

［Original Article］

SHIN-YA KANEKO¹⁾, TAKAFUMI MAEDA¹⁾, AKIHIKO SASAKI¹⁾,
AKIHIKO SATO²⁾, KAZUKO TANAKA¹⁾, TOSHIO KOBAYASHI³⁾,
MASATOSHI TANAKA⁴⁾ and TETSUHITO FUKUSHIMA¹⁾

¹⁾Department of Hygiene & Preventive Medicine, Fukushima Medical University,
School of Medicine, Fukushima
²⁾National Midorigaoka Hospital, Iwaki
³⁾Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima
⁴⁾Early Childhood Education, Fukushima College for Sincerity, Fukushima

(Received September 4, 2003, accepted October 21, 2003)

Abstract: This paper examines the effects of shift work on the mental state of factory workers.　As an indicator of the workers' mental condition, the authors used a scoring system (referred to below as the ‘depression tendency score') based on the SRQ-D investigative report.　The depression tendency score of the men was higher among the shift worker group than among the regular day worker group (p<0.01).　The depression tendency score of the male back-to-back shift workers was higher than that of the male regular day workers among skilled workers (p<0.05).　Among the women, no notable difference in depression tendency score was observed between the regular day worker group and the shift worker group.　However, the depression tendency score of the female two-shift workers was higher than that of the female regular day workers among skilled workers (p<0.05).　We conclude that the mental health of men is easily affected by back-to-back shift work and that of women is affected by two-shift work because of the difference in modern societal/home role between man and woman.

Key words: Mental State, Factory workers, the regular day workers, the shift workers, SRQ-D

金子信也，前田享史，佐々木昭彦，佐藤晶彦，田中かづ子，小林敏生，田中正敏，福島哲仁

Correspondence to: Shin-ya Kaneko, Department of Hygiene & Preventive Medicine, Fukushima Medical University School of Medicine, Fukushima City 960-1295, Japan.
E-mail: s-kaneko@fmu.ac.jp