Organizational Justice and Refraining from Seeking Medical Care Among Japanese Employees: A 1-Year Prospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND

Using a 1-year prospective design, we examined the association of organizational justice (i.e., procedural justice and interactional justice) with refraining from seeking medical care (RSMC) among Japanese employees.

METHODS

We surveyed 2695 employees (1994 men and 701 women) from two factories of a manufacturing company in Japan. A self-administered questionnaire comprising scales for measuring organizational justice (Organizational Justice Questionnaire) and potential confounders (i.e., demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as health-related behaviors) was administered at baseline (from April to June 2011). At 1-year follow-up (from April to June 2012), a single-item question was used to measure RSMC during the follow-up period. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted by gender.

RESULTS

After adjusting for potential confounders, low procedural justice and low interactional justice at baseline were found to be significantly associated with higher odds of RSMC during the 1-year follow-up for male employees (odds ratio = 1.33 [95% confidence interval = 1.16-1.52], p < 0.001 and 1.15 [95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.29], p = 0.019, respectively). Similar patterns were observed for female employees (odds ratio = 1.37 [95% confidence interval = 1.08-1.74], p = 0.009 and 1.23 [95% confidence interval = 1.02-1.50], p = 0.035 for low procedural justice and low interactional justice, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The present study provided evidence that the lack of organizational justice is positively associated with RSMC among Japanese employees, independently of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as of health-related behaviors.