Mental Health of Canadian Firefighters: The Impact of Sleep

Abstract

Volunteer and career firefighters are at risk of major depressive disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), alcohol use disorder, and other mental health disorders due to the demanding and unpredictable nature of their employment. The mental health risks are exacerbated by the need to work extended hours, night shifts, and/or rotating schedules, or the competing demands of other employment, especially in volunteer firefighters. The mental health disorders and risk factors interact with altered sleeping patterns. In the current study, we examined volunteer and career firefighters regarding the association between mental health and sleep, drawing from a national Canadian mental health survey of 1217 firefighters. Most (69%) of the firefighters reported less than ideal sleep quality and 21% screened positive for clinical insomnia, with no significant difference between volunteer and career subgroups. Firefighters with insomnia had higher odds ratios (OR) and frequencies for PTSD (OR = 4.98), generalized anxiety disorder (OR = 7.15), panic disorder (OR = 6.88), social phobia (OR = 4.98), and major depressive disorder (OR = 7.91), than firefighters without insomnia. The burden of sleep disorders and their association with mental health disorders suggests that sleep should be considered in health monitoring and self-management, environmental design, fire service work-organization policies, and health programming.

What matters most? Network analysis of mental health, recovery experiences, sleep, and fatigue among career firefighters

“…Second, all the study's participants were from China. In contrast to some Western countries, there are only career firefighters in China while, for instance, volunteers carry out most firefighting work in the rural areas of Canada (Cramm et al., 2021). Furthermore, most Chinese firefighters are living at the fire station, which is different from other countries.…”

“…Firefighting is a stressful job. Firefighters must stay alert while on duty to allow quick responses to impending emergencies (Cramm et al., 2021). Furthermore, when responding to calls on duty, they must be extremely cautious and sometimes need to make immediate life‐critical decisions (Payne & Kinman, 2019).…”

Mental distress symptoms among Muscat firefighters: the impact of sociodemographic factors, sleep disturbance and smoking

“…However, the relationship between risk factors and mental disorders is yet to be delineated. Previous studies shed light on factors such as the relationship between workload and depression symptoms (Saijo et al, 2008); sleep disorders and their impact on mental disorder symptoms such as anxiety, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Cramm et al, 2021); age and experience in the service and their relation with stress symptoms (Klimley et al, 2018;Chamberlin and Green, 2010); the relationship between alcohol use and suicide ideation and, to a lesser extent, to depression and PTSD (Martin et al, 2017;Lebeaut et al, 2020); the relationship between distress symptoms and education level (Alghamdi et al, 2017;Chen et al, 2020); and even the role of gender in responding to traumatic events (Jacobsson et al, 2015). However, there are shortcoming provided in the previous studies such as limitation in geographically extending the results to other firefighter communities (Saijo et al, 2008); differences in vulnerability of firefighters to traumatic incidents from one country to another (Corneil et al, 1999); and extensive list of effective factors and lack of longitudinal studies to correlate those factors with firefighters mental distresses (Becker et al, 2020).…”

“…However, the relationship between risk factors and mental disorders is yet to be delineated. Previous studies shed light on factors such as the relationship between workload and depression symptoms (Saijo et al ., 2008); sleep disorders and their impact on mental disorder symptoms such as anxiety, depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Cramm et al. , 2021); age and experience in the service and their relation with stress symptoms (Klimley et al ., 2018; Chamberlin and Green, 2010); the relationship between alcohol use and suicide ideation and, to a lesser extent, to depression and PTSD (Martin et al.…”

Surviving & Thriving; a healthy lifestyle app for new US firefighters: usability and pilot study protocol

“…Yet, firefighters are often quite sedentary in their workplaces ( 3 ), and exercise programs are rarely mandated. In addition, due to the nature of shift work, many firefighters report poor sleep quality, sleep disturbances, and sleep disorders, which have been associated with impaired cardiometabolic and mental health outcomes ( 21 – 23 ). Firefighters are also repeatedly exposed to traumatic events which may pose a significant burden on mental health ( 24 ).…”