Effect of occupational stress on the mental health of railway workers

Abstract

Objective: To explore the impact of occupational stress and shift work on the mental health of railway workers and provide a scientific basis for occupational health protection. Methods: In April 2019, stratified cluster sampling method was used to select 613 railway workers from Fuzhou railway as subjects. Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) , Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) , Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS) were used to investigate railway workers' occupational stress and mental health conditions. The influencing factors of railway workers' mental health were analyzed. Results: The detection rates of mental health problems, anxiety and depression of railway workers were 40.5% (248/613) , 4.4% (27/613) and 9.0% (55/613) , respectively. There were 250 railway workers with occupational stress (40.78%) . There were statistically significant differences in the total scores of SCL-90 among different groups of working age and education background (P<0.05) . And there were statistically significant differences in the SAS total scores among different groups of education background (P<0.05) . The detection rates of mental health problems and anxiety in the night shift group were higher than that in the white shift group, and the differences were statistically significant (P<0.05) . The detection rate of mental health problems in the group with occupational stress was higher than that in the group without occupational stress, and the difference was statistically significant (P<0.05) . Logistic regression analysis found that night shift work was the main risk factor affecting railway workers' anxiety (OR=2.38, 95%CI: 1.04-5.46, P<0.05) . The results of interaction analysis showed that compared with the non-occupational stress+white shift group, the workers in the night shift+occupational stress group had the higher risk of mental health problems and anxiety (OR=3.14, 95%CI: 1.84-5.38; OR=4.29, 95%CI: 1.36-13.54; P<0.05) . Conclusion: Night shift and occupational stress are the risk factors for the mental health of railway workers, and the interaction between night shift and occupational stress is the most harmful to the mental health of railway workers.