Study of the Effects of Recognition of Stress on Symptoms and Regular Hospital Visits: An Analysis from Japanese National Statistics

Abstract

Stress is a risk factor for numerous lifestyle diseases, including dental diseases. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how sensitivity to psychological stress relates to subjective symptoms and regular hospital visits using information from the large-scale database of national statistics. Anonymized data from 10,584 respondents aged 30–79 of the Japanese 2013 Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions were analyzed. Respondents were classified by age into a middle-aged group and an elderly group, and a contingency table analysis, rank correlation analysis, and binomial logistic regression analysis were performed. Contingency table analysis confirmed that eight items were related to the presence of a recognition of stress, including the presence of subjective symptoms ( p < 0.001), the presence of regular hospital visits ( p < 0.001), symptoms of periodontal disease ( p < 0.001), and self-rated health ( p < 0.001). Responses for symptoms and diseases requiring regular hospital visits were ranked in order for a stress group and a no stress group, and it was found that other than fatigue symptoms being ranked highly in the stress group, there were no particular differences. Logistic regression analysis results showed significant odds ratios for six items including: self-rated health (3.91, 95% CI, 3.23 to 4.73), lifestyle awareness (1.96, 95% CI, 1.68 to 2.28), and symptoms of periodontal disease (1.71, 95% CI 1.19 to 2.48). The present study showed that susceptibility to psychological stress is related to awareness of subjective symptoms and to regular hospital visits due to disease, suggesting that these have direct and indirect mutual effects.