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Insomnia Symptoms, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicide Ideation in Japanese White-Collar Employees

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Abstract

Background

Although poor sleep quality is the most common subjective complaint of workers and is a risk factor for depressive symptoms and suicide, researchers have not yet provided definitive links between insomnia symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicide.

Purpose

In our mediation model, we hypothesized relationships among insomnia symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation. The purpose here was to use structural equation modeling (SEM) to test our mediation model.

Method

Three hundred forty-three Japanese full-time white-collar workers completed the measures to assess insomnia symptoms, depressive symptoms, and suicide ideation over an approximately 3-month period.

Results

A SEM analysis revealed that insomnia symptoms were positively and significantly associated with depressive symptoms, and depressive symptoms were positively and significantly associated with suicide ideation. Two tests showed a significant indirect effect of insomnia symptoms on suicide ideation through depressive symptoms. Thus, these results supported our mediation model.

Conclusion

We conclude that insomnia symptoms were positively associated with suicidal ideation, though this relation was accounted for by depressive symptoms in Japanese white-collar workers.

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Notes

  1. Multiple regression analysis was conducted with insomnia symptoms and depressive symptoms as the predictors of suicide ideation. The β weight for the insomnia symptoms score was negative (β = −0.178, p < 0.001), although the correlation coefficient between insomnia symptoms score and suicide ideation score was positive. Multicollinearity diagnostic statistics were 0.699 for tolerance and 1.430 for variance inflation factor (VIF), which were within the acceptable ranges (tolerance >0.10 and VIF <10) [42].

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Amour-Science Research to Tsukasa Kato.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Psychology, Toyo University, 5-28-20 Hakusan, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 112-8606, Japan

    Tsukasa Kato

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  1. Tsukasa Kato
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Correspondence to Tsukasa Kato.

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Kato, T. Insomnia Symptoms, Depressive Symptoms, and Suicide Ideation in Japanese White-Collar Employees. Int.J. Behav. Med. 21, 506–510 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-013-9364-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-013-9364-4

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