爱豆传媒

In this project, our department engages in research in the following major topics to protect mental health of workers and create a productive and lively workplace.
1) Exploring factors associated with the incidence of mental health problems of workers
2) Developing programs to prevent mental health problems of workers
3) Conducting research that promotes a vital and positive psychological state of workers

For the topic No. 1, we have reported that, in addition to work stressors such as job demands, lower work engagement (Imamura et al., Plos One, 2016) and low social capital at work (Sakuraya et al, J Epidemiol Community Health, 2017) might be associated with the occurrence of depressive disorders among workers. A study integrating the global literature on this topic has revealed that the association of work hours with the occurrence of depressive disorders may be low, suggesting that a reduction of work hours is not always effective in preventing such disorders (Watanabe et al., Occup Environ Med, 2016). These studies provide a basis for the prevention of depressive disorders among workers. Building on that, we will develop our research further.

For the topic No. 2, we have developed a new internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program to prevent depressive disorders, a form of psychotherapy that has been proven to provide a medical evidence for treating mental disorders such as depression and anxiety disorders; we have then conducted an effectiveness evaluation study using a randomized controlled trial, which is a study design for conducing a high-quality effectiveness evaluation.

For the topic No. 3, we conduct research that focuses on positive mental health of workers, so as to help healthy workers to engage in their work even more actively and livelily. We are involved in developing programs that improve work engagement of workers, and we have reported in our previous studies that an internet CBT program (Imamura et al., J Occup Environ Med, 2015) and a Job Crafting Program (to promote workers’ motivation to work by improving their approaches to work) (Sakuraya et al., BMC Psychol, 2016) were effective in increasing work engagement of workers. We will further engage in promoting the well-being of workers.

- Imamura K, Kawakami N, Inoue A, Shimazu A, Tsutsumi A, Takahashi M, Totsuzaki T. Work Engagement as a Predictor of Onset of Major Depressive Episode (MDE) among Workers, Independent of Psychological Distress: A 3-Year Prospective Cohort Study. PLoS One. 2016 Feb 3;11(2):e0148157. eCollection 2016. Erratum in: PLoS One. 2016 Dec 2;11(12 ):e0167862.
- Sakuraya A, Imamura K, Inoue A, Tsutsumi A, Shimazu A, Takahashi M, Totsuzaki T, Kawakami N. Workplace social capital and the onset of major depressive episode among workers in Japan: a 3-year prospective cohort study. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2017 Jun;71(6):606-612.
- Watanabe K, Imamura K, Kawakami N. Working hours and the onset of depressive disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Occup Environ Med. 2016 Dec;73(12):877-884.
- Imamura K, Kawakami N, Furukawa TA, Matsuyama Y, Shimazu A, Umanodan R, Kawakami S, Kasai K. Effects of an Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) program in Manga format on improving subthreshold depressive symptoms among healthy workers: a randomized controlled trial. PLoS One. 2014 May 20;9(5):e97167.
- Imamura K, Kawakami N, Furukawa TA, Matsuyama Y, Shimazu A, Umanodan R, Kawakami S, Kasai K. Does Internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy (iCBT) prevent major depressive episode for workers? A 12-month follow-up of a randomized controlled trial. Psychol Med. 2015 Jul;45(9):1907-17.
- Imamura K, Kawakami N, Furukawa TA, Matsuyama Y, Shimazu A, Umanodan R, Kawakami S, Kasai K. Effects of an internet-based cognitive behavioral therapy intervention on improving work engagement and other work-related outcomes: an analysis of secondary outcomes of a randomized controlled trial. J Occup Environ Med. 2015 May;57(5):578-84.
- Sakuraya A, Shimazu A, Imamura K, Namba K, Kawakami N. Effects of a job crafting intervention program on work engagement among Japanese employees: a pretest-posttest study. BMC Psychol. 2016 Oct 24;4(1):49.