Lifestyle parameters of Japanese agricultural and non-agricultural workers aged 60 years or older and less than 60 years: A cross-sectional observational study

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 18; no. 10; p. e0290662
• Main Authors: Kinoshita, Fumie, Yoshida, Kei, Fujitani, Masaya, Imai, Yuta, Kobayashi, Yumiko, Ito, Tomoya, Okumura, Yuto, Sato, Hiroyuki, Mikami, Tatsuya, Jung, Songee, Hirakawa, Akihiro, Nakatochi, Masahiro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: San Francisco Public Library of Science 04.10.2023; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Age; Age groups; Aged; Agricultural industry; Agricultural laborers; Agriculture; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass index; Demographic aspects; Education; Energy intake; Farmworkers; Health aspects; Health promotion; Health surveys; Hypotheses; Life expectancy; Life span; Lifestyles; Management; Medicine and Health Sciences; Missing data; Observational studies; People and Places; Physical fitness; Quality of life; Questionnaires; Regression analysis; Sleep; Social Sciences; Training; Variables; Work hours; Workers; Japan
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0290662

Improving the lifestyle of occupational workers is essential for extending healthy life expectancy. We investigated various lifestyle-related items in a rural Japanese population and compared them between agricultural and non-agricultural workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted as a part of the "Iwaki Health Promotion Project." Lifestyle-related items such as sleep, work hours, nutrition, health-related quality of life, and proportion of time spent performing each daily activity were compared between agricultural and non-agricultural workers in the [greater than or equal to]60 years (n = 251) and <60 years (n = 560) age groups. Agricultural workers had significantly lower Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index total scores than non-agricultural workers in the <60 years group. The proportion of participants with more than 5 weekly working days was high among agricultural workers in both groups. Additionally, the proportion of people who worked more than 8 h per day was high among agricultural workers in both age groups. Energy intake per day was high among agricultural workers in the <60 years group. In both age groups, agricultural workers slept and woke up approximately 40 min earlier than did non-agricultural workers. Agricultural workers have better sleep habits but work longer than non-agricultural workers, with some differences in energy intake and proportion of time spent on each daily activity. These differences should be considered when planning lifestyle intervention programs for agricultural workers.