N. Miyatake et al. / Health 3 (2011) 537-541
Copyright © 2011 SciRes. Openly accessible at http://www.scirp.org/journal/HEALTH/
541541
smoking cessation and prevention programs should fo-
cus on change in individual coping mechanisms [14].
We also found that the rate of stress in shift smokers was
higher than that in day workers and the rate of stress
coping was also higher in shift workers than that in day
workers after adjusting in women. Although the rate of
stress coping was higher in shift workers than that in day
workers, the rate of stress coping was significantly lo wer
than in current smokers than that in non smokers in
women. Taken together, it seems reasonable to suggest
that simply recommending proper stress coping except
cigarette smoking, might result in decreased cigarette
smoking in some Japanese female workers.
Potential limitations remain in this study. First, our
study was a cross sectional and not a longitudinal study.
Second, the 3238 Japanese male workers and 5111
women, all of whom wanted to change their lifestyle,
underwent measurements for this study: they were there-
fore more health-conscious than the average person. In
fact, in men, clear associations were not noted the rela-
tionship between shift work and cigarette smoking as
previous studies [1,2,4]. Third, we could not obtain the
data of the average number of cigarettes smoked per day
or subject’ age when they started smoking. Subjects who
smoked before the date of the analysis but who had
stopped by then would have therefore been categorized
as non-smokers. Fourth, status of stress and stress coping
was evaluated by simple questionnaire (yes or no).
Therefore, further prospective studies are needed in Jap-
anese workers to prove the link between work style and
cigarette smoking.
5. CONFLICT OF INTEREST
There is no conflict of interest.
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