A Cross-Sectional Study of the Relationship Between Exercise, Physical Activity, and Health-Related Quality of Life Among Japanese Workers

  1. Ryosuke Sugano
  2. Kazunori Ikegami
  3. Hisashi Eguchi
  4. Mayumi Tsuji
  5. Seiichiro Tateishi
  6. Tomohisa Nagata
  7. Shinya Matsuda
  8. Yoshihisa Fujino
  9. Akira Ogami

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Abstract

Studies have determined that exercise and physical activity positively affect physical and mental health, and that healthy workers contribute to increased work performance. The relationship between the time spent on exercise during leisure time and physical activity, including work, with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in workers is unclear, with variations observed between occupational types. This cross-sectional study examined these associations among Japanese workers from various occupations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

An Internet-based national health survey—Collaborative Online Research on Novel-coronavirus and Work-study (CORoNaWork study)—was conducted among 33,087 Japanese workers in December 2020. After excluding invalid responses, 27,036 participants were categorized into four and five groups according to exercise and physical activity time, respectively. Each group's scores were compared on each of the four questions on the Japanese version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health-Related Quality of Life (CDC HRQOL-4) using generalized linear models. Age-sex adjusted and multivariate models were used to compare each index of the CDC HRQOL-4.

Results

Compared to the reference category (almost never), any level of exercise (ORs 0.56–0.77) and physical activity (ORs 0.93–0.88) were associated with better self-rated health in the multivariate model. Any exercise was also associated with significantly reduced odds for physically or mentally unhealthy days; however, high levels of physical activity (≥120 min/day) were associated with significantly increased odds for these outcomes (ORs = 1.11 and 1.16, respectively).

Conclusions

The results suggest that exercise habits are more critical to workers' HRQOL than physical activity. Interventions that encourage daily exercise even for a short time are likely to be associated with better workers' health and work performance.

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  1. Version published to 10.3389/fspor.2022.809465
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.06.15.21259002: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Ethicsnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    We used SPSS 25.0 J analytical software (IBM, NY, USA) for statistical analyses.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    As for the days with activity limitation, the results suggest that less than 60 minutes/day of exercise can reduce the number of activity limitation days. However, this relationship was different from that found for the other indicators of HRQOL (self-rated health, physically unhealthy days, mentally unhealthy days), where daily exercise, even for a long time, may have a positive impact. This difference may be because daily exercise for a long time increases the risk of injury that may interfere with daily life. Studies have shown that the average recreational runner suffers an injury rate of 2.5 to 12.1/1000 hours during running, which is one of the most popular forms of exercise [29]. In addition, workers who had no exercise habits and no physical activity time had more days with activity limitation, so it is especially important for workers who spend little time engaged in some form of physical activity to exercise during their leisure time. These results indicate that it is crucial to have an exercise habit, regardless of the amount of time spent engaged in physical activity (including work), to have a good health-related quality of life. In addition, the results suggested that between 30 and 60 minutes of exercise daily was the most effective amount of exercise time for having a good health-related quality of life. Conversely, daily exercise, even for a short time, is thought to improve self-rated health and decrease mentally unhealthy days. Therefore, encouraging worker...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

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  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.06.15.21259002v1 on medRxiv