Stressful work characteristics, health indicators and work behavior: the case of machine operators

Psychological distress is more common in some occupations and increases with job tenure: a thirty-seven year panel study in the United States

BACKGROUND

Workers in certain occupations may have elevated risks of psychological distress. However, research is limited. For example, researchers often measure distress that may have existed before occupational exposures. We studied occupations and the development of psychological distress using national data from the United States.

METHODS

We reviewed relevant research to identify occupations with low and high risks of mental health problems. We confirmed those individual low and high risk occupations using 1981-2017 data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (n = 24,789). We measured new cases of distress using the Screening Scale for Psychological Distress (Kessler K6) and compared distress in the low and high risk groups, adjusted for factors associated with occupational selection and non-occupational distress risks. A subset of participants described their jobs (n = 1,484), including factors such as job demands, social support, and control over work. We examined associations of those factors with psychological distress.

RESULTS

Workers in high risk occupations had 20% higher adjusted odds of developing distress than those in low risk occupations (odds ratio, OR 1.20, 95% confidence interval, CI 1.13-1.28). Distress increased with time in a high risk occupation: ≥5 years OR 1.38 (CI 1.18-1.62), ≥ 10 years OR 1.46 (CI 1.07-1.99), and ≥ 15 years OR 1.77 (CI 1.08-2.90; p-trend = 0.0145). The most common positive participant descriptions of their jobs indicated social support (34%), sense of accomplishment (17%), and control over work (15%). Participants reporting such descriptions were significantly less likely to have a high risk occupation (OR 0.66, CI 0.46-0.94, p = 0.0195). The most common negative descriptions were excessive job demands (43%), low social support (27%), and lack of control (14%). Participants reporting such descriptions were significantly more likely to have a high risk occupation (OR 1.49, CI 1.03-2.14, p = 0.0331).

CONCLUSION

Certain occupations may have high risks of psychological distress, which may be due to characteristics of the occupations rather than employee characteristics, or in addition to them. Results were consistent with theoretical models of psychosocial work environments. Providers of health care and social services should ask patients or clients about work-related distress.

Approach for Assessing the Prevalence of Psychosocial Risks of Workers in the Greenhouse Construction Industry in South-Eastern Spain

This paper shows the prevalence of psychosocial risks for workers in the greenhouse construction industry in south-eastern Spain. Method: The assessment of the workers' psychosocial risks was carried out through simple random sampling, which uses a questionnaire containing 13 variables characterizing the companies, 14 variables characterizing the workers, and 15 questions proposed by the Mini Psychosocial Factors (MPFs) risk assessment method. A descriptive analysis and multiple correspondence analysis were performed on the sample data. Results: Greenhouse construction businesses in south-eastern Spain can generally be classified as small companies with an average annual turnover below EUR 2.0 million (69.3%), an average of 22.8 workers with an average age of 39.84 years old, most of whom are married, with an average of 1.76 children. The prevalence of workers at high risk was 2.9%, while 45.1% were at medium-high risk. Of the 12 psychosocial factors assessed using the MPF method, 7 of them presented a high level of worker risk: Mobbing (3.2%), Relationships (1.6%), Recognition (1.6%), Autonomy (12.9%), Emotional (8.0%), Control (4.8%), and Demands (3.2%). Lastly, the variables were grouped into four clusters, showing that larger companies are correlated with a medium (workers over 40 years of age or less than 25 years of age) to high (workers under 25 years of age) risk level in several of the psychosocial factors assessed for workers who are Spanish nationals, while in smaller companies, the workers are usually middle aged (between 25 and 40 years old) and from Eastern Europe or Africa, presenting either a low or high level of risk depending on the psychosocial factors and tasks performed. Impact of the results: The study reveals a lack of prevention management regarding psychosocial risks. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out new prevention programmes that optimise the psychosocial conditions of the workers, involving the workers, employers, and other social agents.