The importance of non-energy benefits in living environments for promoting stress-related health

With an aging population and changes in social structure, health promotion has become an important factor in the daily lives of Japanese people. Based on the World Health Organization's definition of "health," there are two elements to improving an individual's health: eliminating physical factors in the living environment that are damaging to health and providing a satisfactory living environment. The objective of this study is to reveal the importance of considering non-energy benefits within the living environment. Based on a questionnaire survey administered online to 1,000 women in January 2012, cross-tabulation and covariance structure analysis was conducted on the relationship between living environments' physical/psychological factors and stress-related health. Structure analysis revealed that the two factors of living environment-physical and psychological-affected residents' health differently, revealing that consideration of non-energy benefits is important when creating health-promoting facilities.