- 著者
 
          - 
             
             Tsukasa Takahashi
             
             Daisuke Hori
             
             Tomohiko Ikeda
             
             Yu Ikeda
             
             Nagisa Shiraki
             
             Christina-Sylvia Andrea
             
             Yuh Ohtaki
             
             Shotaro Doki
             
             Yuichi Oi
             
             Shinichiro Sasahara
             
             Ichiyo Matsuzaki
             
          
 
          
          
          - 出版者
 
          - Tohoku University Medical Press
 
          
          
          - 雑誌
 
          - The Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine (ISSN:00408727)
 
          
          
          - 巻号頁・発行日
 
          - vol.249, no.1, pp.57-64, 2019 (Released:2019-09-27)
 
          
          
          - 参考文献数
 
          - 34
 
          
          
          - 被引用文献数
 
          - 
             
             5
             
             
             8
             
             
          
        
 
        
        
        Non-regular employment is increasing and its mental health impact is a globally important problem.  In Japan, non-regularly employed researchers are increasing, especially within young age groups, because employment quotas were not sufficiently expanded against rapid increasing number of doctorate holders.  It is therefore important to understand the relationship between non-regular employment and mental health.  The significance of our research is to contribute to the improvement of researchers’ mental health by clarifying the influence of employment status on psychological distress.  We conducted a cross-sectional, web-based survey in 2017 via an anonymous, self-administered questionnaire distributed to workers in Tsukuba Science City, Japan.  The survey questionnaire items included employment status, psychological distress, occupational stress, sex, age, and income.  We analyzed 2,762 valid responses in two categories (1,850 regular employment, 912 non-regular employment) and two subcategories based on age according to the definition of “young researcher” by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (20-39 years vs. 40-59 years).  Psychological distress was defined as a total K6 score of 5 or greater.  Binomial logistic regression was used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for psychological distress.  Non-regular employment was significantly associated with psychological distress in the age 20-39 group but not in the age 40-59 group.  At the age 20-39 group, a negative association was shown between psychological distress and reward from work (i.e., pride in their job, ability utilization, and sense of accomplishment).  Support to increase psychological work rewards may be important in reducing psychological distress for young non-regularly employed researchers.