Abstract
Background: The associations between adverse working conditions and mental disorders are well established. However, associations between adverse working conditions and poor mental health functioning is a less explored area. This study examines these associations among younger public sector employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland. Methods: We use data from the Young Helsinki Health Study with a representative sample of the employees of the City of Helsinki, aged 19-39 years (n=4 217). Mental health functioning was measured with mental composite summary of the Short Form 36. Working conditions included factors related to both the psychosocial (job control and job demands) and the physical work environment (physical workload). To examine the associations, we used logistic regression models with adjustments for socio-demographics, other working conditions and health-related covariates. Results: After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, poor health, health behaviours and other occupational exposures, high job demands (OR=1.69; 95% CI=1.45-1.97) and low job control (OR=1.65; 95% CI=1.40-1.94) were associated with poor mental health functioning. High physical workload was not associated with the outcome (OR=0.87; 95% CI=0.72-1.05) after the adjustments. Conclusions: Adverse psychosocial working conditions were associated with mental health functioning, whereas physical working conditions were not. As impaired functioning is likely to cause health-related lost productivity and can lead to work disability, further research and interventions with a balanced approach focusing on both psychosocial working conditions and mental health functioning are recommended.
Highlights
The associations between adverse working conditions and mental disorders are well established
Those with poor health and adverse health behaviours had a higher propensity for reporting poor mental health functioning
The results showed that adverse psychosocial working conditions were associated with poor mental health functioning after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, poor health, adverse health behaviours and physical working conditions
Summary
The associations between adverse working conditions and mental disorders are well established. Associations between adverse working conditions and poor mental health functioning is a less explored area This study examines these associations among younger public sector employees of the City of Helsinki, Finland. Mental disorders impose a heavy toll on employees, employers and society in general through impaired functioning in the workplace, health-related lost productivity and increased costs of work disability [1, 2]. While employment generally supports mental health [3, 4], adverse psychosocial working conditions, such as high job demands and low job control, have been associated with common mental disorders [5,6,7] and sickness absence [8, 9] among all age groups of the working population. Despite the potential practical benefits of using mental health functioning in policies affecting working conditions or increasing the accuracy of sickness absence predictions, there is very little research on working conditions and mental health functioning, i.e. mental health-related wellbeing and individuals' social roles in the workplace
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