| Research Abstract |
(1) Research and discussion pertaining to statistics for occupational injuries and diseases, and to statistics for occupational mortality
In a "Decent Work" Program of the ILO (1998), it was proposed that the ILO should monitor and consider policies on a new form of occupational health issue especially prevalent among white-collar workers, one resulting from overwork and work-related stress. Although many participants attending the "Meeting of Experts on Labor Statistics : Occupational Injuries" at the ILO (1998) emphasized the importance of statistics when analyzing new types of work-related diseases attributable to stress, the issue was not included in the final report owing to difficulties presented by current statistical methods. This notwithstanding, occupational mortality statistics do remain effective for comparing health factors among workers such as mortality according to occupation, sex and age, as well as the actual causes of death, although their direct relevancy to overwork
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/stress may not always be apparent. More recently, the "European Union Working Group on Socioeconomic Inequalities in Health" has also conducted a major project aimed at an international comparison of occupational mortality.
(2) Comparison of occupational mortality in two Nordic countries and Japan by age group using micro-data
When comparing occupational mortality in Finland and Denmark with that of Japan, micro-data for each country were used because of the unavailability of official data for this specific purpose. As a result of this study we found new features not mentioned in past research. In Japan, tendencies towards a high level of mortality attributable to cancer (malignant neoplasms) were observed among technical and clerical workers in all age group from 20 to 64 years, as well as among managers in age group 20〜34. Relatively high levels of mortality among clerical workers in age groups 35〜44, 45〜54 and 55〜64 caused by cancer-related diseases were also evident in Denmark. Moreover, the death rate ratio among managers in age group 25〜34 in Finland was also relatively high. These data suggest to us various kinds of occupational hazard resulting from work-related stress among white-collar workers. To confirm which of these tendencies are common to other countries, an area-expanded comparison is to be our next task. Less
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