Associations between the number of healthy lifestyle habits and focus on opportunities among Japanese workers: a cross-sectional study

In the context of an aging workforce, sustaining workers’ occupational future perspectives is increasingly important. Focus on Opportunities (FOO), a subscale of Occupational Future Time Perspective, reflects workers’ beliefs about future goals and possibilities in their careers and is associated with work engagement, learning motivation, and reduced retirement intention. However, the association between lifestyle habits and FOO has not been examined. This study aimed to investigate the association between lifestyle habits and FOO among Japanese workers. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 14,910 employees aged 18 years or older at seven large companies in Japan. Seven lifestyle habits corresponding to Breslow’s seven health habits were assessed using the Specific Health Checkup questionnaire. The number of healthy lifestyle habits was categorized into six groups (0–2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7). FOO was assessed using three items from the Japanese version of the Occupational Future Time Perspective scale. Multilevel linear regression analyses nested within companies were conducted to examine the associations between the number of healthy lifestyle habits and FOO, and between each individual lifestyle habit and FOO. Analyses were also stratified by age group (younger than 45 years and 45 years or older). A clear dose–response association was observed between the number of healthy lifestyle habits and FOO after multivariable adjustment: compared with participants with 0–2 good habits, those with 7 habits had significantly higher FOO scores (B = 0.490, 95% confidence interval: 0.379–0.602). Similar dose–response associations were observed in both age groups. Among individual lifestyle habits, adequate sleep showed the strongest independent association with FOO (B = 0.282, 95% confidence interval: 0.250–0.313), followed by regular physical activity, no excessive snacking, non-smoking, regular breakfast consumption, and adequate body mass index. Low-risk alcohol consumption was not significantly associated with FOO. A higher number of healthy lifestyle habits was associated with higher FOO in a dose–response manner, consistently across age groups, suggesting that promoting multiple healthy lifestyle habits in the workplace may contribute not only to physical health but also to supporting workers’ positive occupational future perspectives across all career stages.