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Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study
BACKGROUND: Daylight hours in high-latitude regions tend to be longer than those in Japan in summer, and shorter than those in Japan in winter. For example, daylight hours in London in winter are one-third those of Tokyo. Therefore, this study investigated and compared seasonal changes in mood and b...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2016
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5139138/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27980611 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13030-016-0084-2 |
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author | Kurata, Yumiko Izawa, Shuhei Nomura, Shinobu |
author_facet | Kurata, Yumiko Izawa, Shuhei Nomura, Shinobu |
author_sort | Kurata, Yumiko |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Daylight hours in high-latitude regions tend to be longer than those in Japan in summer, and shorter than those in Japan in winter. For example, daylight hours in London in winter are one-third those of Tokyo. Therefore, this study investigated and compared seasonal changes in mood and behaviours of Japanese individuals living in and outside Japan. METHODS: Surveys were conducted with Japanese residents in summer and winter in the UK (n = 106), Nordic countries (n = 40), Southeast Asia (n = 50), and Japan (n = 96). First, summer and winter General Health Questionnaire–28 (GHQ28) scores of each regional group were analysed. Subsequently, month-wise differences in mood and behaviours were compared across the four geographical regions. RESULTS: Summer and winter GHQ28 scores of participants living in the UK and Nordic countries differed significantly, while no seasonal differences were observed for residents in Japan and Southeast Asia. Further, in the UK and Nordic countries, summer was associated with better mood and more activity, while winter was linked to lowered mood and reduced activity. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that Japanese living in the UK and Nordic countries (high-latitude regions) experience seasonal fluctuations in depressive symptoms that may be linked to drastic seasonal environmental changes. Observed over a 12-month period, their mood and behaviour declined in winter and improved in summer. Therefore, considering the prevalence of overseas stressors that differ from those in their home country, it is necessary to investigate the effectiveness of support systems that help migrants adapt to seasonal changes in high-latitude regions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5139138 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2016 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-51391382016-12-15 Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study Kurata, Yumiko Izawa, Shuhei Nomura, Shinobu Biopsychosoc Med Research BACKGROUND: Daylight hours in high-latitude regions tend to be longer than those in Japan in summer, and shorter than those in Japan in winter. For example, daylight hours in London in winter are one-third those of Tokyo. Therefore, this study investigated and compared seasonal changes in mood and behaviours of Japanese individuals living in and outside Japan. METHODS: Surveys were conducted with Japanese residents in summer and winter in the UK (n = 106), Nordic countries (n = 40), Southeast Asia (n = 50), and Japan (n = 96). First, summer and winter General Health Questionnaire–28 (GHQ28) scores of each regional group were analysed. Subsequently, month-wise differences in mood and behaviours were compared across the four geographical regions. RESULTS: Summer and winter GHQ28 scores of participants living in the UK and Nordic countries differed significantly, while no seasonal differences were observed for residents in Japan and Southeast Asia. Further, in the UK and Nordic countries, summer was associated with better mood and more activity, while winter was linked to lowered mood and reduced activity. CONCLUSION: The results indicate that Japanese living in the UK and Nordic countries (high-latitude regions) experience seasonal fluctuations in depressive symptoms that may be linked to drastic seasonal environmental changes. Observed over a 12-month period, their mood and behaviour declined in winter and improved in summer. Therefore, considering the prevalence of overseas stressors that differ from those in their home country, it is necessary to investigate the effectiveness of support systems that help migrants adapt to seasonal changes in high-latitude regions. BioMed Central 2016-12-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5139138/ /pubmed/27980611 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13030-016-0084-2 Text en © The Author(s). 2016 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research Kurata, Yumiko Izawa, Shuhei Nomura, Shinobu Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
title | Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
title_full | Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
title_fullStr | Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
title_full_unstemmed | Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
title_short | Seasonality in mood and behaviours of Japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
title_sort | seasonality in mood and behaviours of japanese residents in high-latitude regions: transnational cross-sectional study |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5139138/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27980611 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13030-016-0084-2 |
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