Abstract
BackgroundStress and psychological disorders have been assigned increasing significance in the field of occupational health. Based on Japan’s psychiatric disability occupational disease recognition regulation, Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs announced “Evaluation Guidelines for psychiatric diseases induced by work-related stress” in 2009. This evaluation tool was designed to assess the source and intensity of work-related and non-work-related mental stress, and references existing Japanese guidelines. However, empirical data from workers in various sectors in Taiwan are still required to validate the utility of the guidelines.MethodsThis study recruited 2319 workers from the manufacturing, service, and public administration sectors to participate in a survey between 2010 and 2011. The survey included questions regarding participants’ demographic characteristics, job type or attributes, a life event stress intensity evaluation Table (35 work-related and 23 non-work-related items on a scale of 1–10). The Chinese version of the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (C-CBI) and Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ-12) were also included to explore associations between work-related/non-work-related stress and health outcomes.ResultsAnalyses of survey results showed events relating to employment security (e.g., “company bankruptcy” and “being fired or forced to retire” scores; mean stress intensity scores both 6.18) were the cause of the highest intensity work-related stress. Within different demographic/job type categories, women had higher stress intensity scores for most items than men (greatest difference in “sexual harassment in the workplace” score). Furthermore, executive class workers generally experienced more psychological stress than blue-collar workers (greatest difference in “serious injury or disease due to work” score). Results from regression analysis supported the observation that employees’ burnout and work-related stress was more significant than non-work-related stress. Moreover, work-related/non-work-related stress intensity levels both had significant negative predictive effects on mental health.ConclusionsRegarding policy, this study provides empirical evidence and practical suggestions for establishing a psychological stress intensity database of workers under specific social contexts in a newly industrialized East Asian country. Such a database can be employed to help identify workers with work-related psychological disorders. Additionally, this study also provides a point of reference for enterprises to prioritize agendas when developing employee stress management and support protocols.
Highlights
Stress and psychological disorders have been assigned increasing significance in the field of occupa‐ tional health
This study was based on the “Evaluation Guidelines for psychiatric diseases induced by work-related mental stress” announced by the Council of Labor Affairs, Taiwan, in 2009
We found that items such as “company bankruptcy,” “being fired or forced to retire,” “suffering from severe unreasonable or ill-treatment, humiliation, or violent behavior,” and “significant financial losses at work,” which received relatively high-stress intensity rankings in this study, were categorized as Level III intensity in the Japanese evaluation guidelines
Summary
Stress and psychological disorders have been assigned increasing significance in the field of occupa‐ tional health. Based on Japan’s psychiatric disability occupational disease recognition regulation, Taiwan’s Council of Labor Affairs announced “Evaluation Guidelines for psychiatric diseases induced by work-related stress” in 2009 This evaluation tool was designed to assess the source and intensity of work-related and non-work-related mental stress, and references existing Japanese guidelines. In 1999, based on the “Labor Standards Act Enforcement Rules,” article 35, paragraph 9, regarding “definitive work-related diseases that result from other causes,” “Guidelines on the Applicability of Workers’ Compensation to Patients with Mental Disorders Related to Psychological Load” (hereafter referred to as Japanese evaluation guidelines) were announced [6]. These evaluation guidelines included “psychological disorders caused by work-related stress.”. In the absence of high non-work-related stress, a psychiatric disorder history, addictive drug usage, and other personal factors leading to stress, if an individual experienced work-related stress events at a 3-level intensity
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