Relationship between social support, mental health and health care consciousness in developing the industrial health education of male employees.

The purpose of the study is to elucidate the relationship between social support, health care consciousness and mental health in developing the industrial health education aimed at improving the health habits of male employees. A questionnaire survey concerning health practices, mental health based on the General Health Questionnaire, social support from social support networks, and health care consciousness based on the Health Locus of Control was conducted on male employees in three companies in Osaka Prefecture. A total of 1,634 questionnaires were collected. Analyses by age group showed that in all age groups, the higher the social support score, the more favorable the mental health became and the stronger the family care in health care consciousness became. The better the mental health, the greater the number of good health practices was and the lower the fortune dependence in health care consciousness tended to be. The results of the study reconfirm the previous findings that it is necessary to put the mental health of male employees in good condition before everything else in effectively developing health education aimed at improving their health habits. This study also indicates that the level of perception of social support and their internal control of self and family in health care consciousness are definitely related to the stability of subjects' mental health. It is therefore presumed that measures to raise the revel of perception of social support are important since they may improve the mental health of subjects.