Gender Differences in the Longitudinal Association between Work-Related Injury and Depression.

Jaeyoung Kim,Yeongchull Choi

doi:10.3390/ijerph13111077

Abstract

Little is known about gender differences in the association between occupational injury and depression. We investigated the bidirectional association and gender differences between work-related injury and depression using the same cohort in the US Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). In Analysis 1, the association of occupational injury and subsequent depression was investigated from 35,155 employees without depression. Analysis 2 included 32,355 participants without previous injury and examined the association of depression and work-related injury. The multivariable-adjusted odds ratio was estimated using a discrete time-proportional odds model. Male workers who had experienced workplace injury were more vulnerable to post-injury depression than non-injured male workers (OR = 2.35, 95% CI: 1.52, 3.65). Female workers with depression were more prone to get injured at the workplace than the non-depressed female workers (OR = 1.44, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.96). These results did not hold in the reverse direction for both genders. Workers compensation benefit was positively associated with the risk of post-injury depression among males, whereas anti-depressant medication and duration of depression were related to workplace injury among females. Gender differences in the direction and associated factors of the relationship between occupational injury and depression highlight the need for gender-specific intervention to the vicious cycle of workplace injury and depression.

Highlights

It has been reported that persons with severe traumatic injuries are more vulnerable to become depressed than the rest of the population [1,2,3,4]
Women were more prone to be depressed in general, the relative effect of occupational injury on depression was larger on men
Despite the fact that men were more prone to get injured on the job, the relative impact of depression on occupational injury was higher for women

Summary

Introduction

It has been reported that persons with severe traumatic injuries are more vulnerable to become depressed than the rest of the population [1,2,3,4]. The reverse situation has been demonstrated: individuals with pre-existing mental health problems or depressive symptoms show an increased likelihood of physical disability, or traumatic injury [5,6,7,8]. Suggestive evidence exists for each direction of the association between occupational injury and depression; workers with occupational injury have been reported to be more likely to be depressed [12,13,14,15,16], and workers with depressive symptoms or psychosocial job stress have exhibited an increased likelihood of injury at work [17,18,19]. In assessing the association between occupational injury and depression, methodological concerns regarding confounding and reverse causation are important because the positive findings may not be attributable to depression or injury per se, but may instead be created spuriously from

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion