Abstract
The principal objective of this study was to provide basic data regarding health care services for middle-aged men, via an analysis of the relationships among stress level, food habits and well-being-related attitudes with social-demographic characteristics and health-related factors. The main findings of this study were as follows. The average age of the participants was $48.7{\pm}5.2$. With regard to health status, 18.8% of the participants were diagnosed with digestive diseases within the past year. Stress levels were higher in the participants with lower levels of educational attainment. Furthermore, participants who had become divorced or lived separately from their families, participants who did not have their own houses, and participants who reported low marital satisfaction also had high levels of stress. Our food habits scores revealed meaningful differences among the study subjects, and were shown to vary with marital satisfaction, occupation, and residence type. In terms of both the importance and practice level of well-being-associated food habits, the most frequent response in this study was 'Consume home-made food rather than processed or ready-to-eat food' ($4.30{\pm}0.86$, $3.68{\pm}1.04$). In terms of importance level, the factors most relevant to well-being in terms of food habits were education level, marital satisfaction, residence type, self-assessed health status, smoking, drinking, regular exercises and leisure activities. With regard to practice levels, the degree to which subjects engaged in food habits targeted toward well-being differed meaningfully depending on marital status, marital satisfaction, residence type, family type, self-assessed health status, smoking, drinking, nutritional supplement intake, regular exercises and leisure activities. After analyzing the correlation among stress level, food habit score and the attitude towards well-being-related dietary habits (importance and practice level), we observed a meaningful relationship between the four factors at the level of p<0.001. According to the above result, continuous attention to health, including the appropriate control of smoking and drinking, as well as, stress management, via regular exercises and appropriate food habits is expected to exert a positive influence on the prevention of disease, and is also expected to improve quality of life. For all well-being-associated items, the importance level was shown to be higher than the practice level. Thus, in order to foster health-oriented food habits, we recommend that a new plan be designed, targeted toward ease of active practice for middle-aged men.
