Abstract
BackgroundTo examine the risk of depressive and anxiety disorders according to psychosocial working conditions in a large population-based sample.MethodsJob Exposure Matrix was applied to assess psychosocial working conditions in a population-based nested case-control study of 14,166 psychiatric patients, diagnosed with depressive or anxiety disorders during 1995–1998 selected from The Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register, compared with 58,060 controls drawn from Statistics Denmark's Integrated Database for Labour Market Research.ResultsLow job control was associated with an increased risk of anxiety disorders in men (IRR 1.40, 95% CI 1.24–1.58).In women an elevated risk of depression was related to high emotional demands (IRR 1.39, 95%CI 1.22–1.58) and to working with people (IRR 1.15, 95% CI 1.01–1.30). In both sexes high demands were associated with a decreased risk of anxiety disorders. There was a weak association between job strain and anxiety disorders in men (IRR 1.13, 95%, CI 1.02–1.25)ConclusionPsychosocial work exposures related to the risk of depressive and anxiety disorders differ as between the sexes. The pattern of risks is inconsistent. The results give rise to rethinking both study designs and possible causal links between work exposures and mental health.
Highlights
To examine the risk of depressive and anxiety disorders according to psychosocial working conditions in a large population-based sample
Studies of psychosocial work environment based on the control-demand-support model [1,2] indicate that lack of job control, low decision authority, low skill discretion and job strain are associated with the risk of depression, anxiety, distress, fatigue, job dissatisfaction, burn-out and sickness absence [3,4,5,6,7]
Age span was 18–65, and depression was more frequent among cases older than 40 years (53%) while proportion of anxiety disorders was higher among cases younger than 40 years (66%)
Summary
To examine the risk of depressive and anxiety disorders according to psychosocial working conditions in a large population-based sample. BMC Public Health 2008, 8:280 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/8/280 tional demands [8,9,10], work conflicts, job insecurity [11,12], managerial styles, organisational justice and climate [13,14] as well as exposure to threats and violence [15,16,17,18]. Most of these studies are cross-sectional and confined to a selected occupation or sector, rendering causal interpretations and generalisation difficult. These limitations may severely undermine the validity of findings and render causal inferences difficult [23]
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