Depression in Employees in Privately Owned Enterprises in China: Is It Related to Work Environment and Work Ability?

Abstract

This study examines the individual and workplace factors related to depression and stress in a large privately owned enterprise in China. The cross-sectional study design involved 13 privately owned retail enterprises in China. A self-report survey was administered to 4,847 employees aged 18–54 recruited through the management boards of the 13 enterprises. A chi-square test was used to compare differences between the depressed and non-depressed groups on a number of demographic variables and chronic diseases. Logistic regression analysis was performed to assess depression in relation to individual factors (work ability and resilience) and organisational environmental factors (workplace ethos and culture, psychosocial environment and health promotion policies and activities). Significant relationships were found between employee depression all personal factors, and one organisational environmental factor. Personal factors include poor work ability and low resilience, while workplace factors include workplace ethos and culture. The primary organisational environmental factor was a low level of enterprise ethos and culture.

Prevalence and determinants of insufficient work ability in older HIV-positive and HIV-negative workers

“…A high need for recovery after work has been shown to be predictive of sickness absence (de Croon et al 2003 ), but may also be important in functioning of individuals at work, as it was associated with work ability in this study. Like in previous studies (Sun et al 2013 ; Ruitenburg et al 2012 ), there was a strong association between depressive symptoms and work ability in our study. Unfortunately, the cross-sectional design of this study makes it impossible to establish causality.…”

Developing an Extended Model of the Relation between Work Motivation and Health as Affected by the Work Ability as Part of a Corporate Age Management Approach

“…Since behavior prevention alone has little effect, it is useful to first focus on preventing certain conditions or circumstances in order to lay the foundations for a healthy and age-adequate work organization [ 34 ]. According to Prümper and Richenhagen [ 35 ], executives play a key role in this context.…”

“…They function as role models and essentially shape work culture which forms the decisive basis for health and wellbeing at work. Workplace culture and ethos are significantly related to employees’ health, especially to the likelihood of heaving depression [ 34 ]. Demographic change plays a central role in this context.…”

“…Also, Tengland [ 28 ] states that even if you are perfectly healthy, you might still not have work ability, since most kinds of work require special competences. However, Sun et al [ 34 ] show that low working ability as well as low level of resilience are related to the likelihood of having depression.…”

The role of cognitive resources for subjective work ability and health in nursing

“…Third, it is possible that depression (e.g., Jorm 2000) leads to both cognitive decline and to negative evaluations of one's own work ability. The relatively large proportion of workers with depressive symptoms in certain professional groups such as nursing, and the finding that depressive symptoms are related to lower cognitive functioning as well as to lower work ability (e.g., Elinson et al 2004;Rydrnark et al 2006;Sun et al 2013;Van der Linden et al 2005) suggests that considering depressive symptoms as a potential confounder may be relevant in the work context. Fourth, self-regulation strategies in terms of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) have been suggested to be instrumental in sustaining good levels of functioning and health in aging (e.g., Baltes and Baltes 1989).…”