Occupation, work-related stress, and personal characteristics among suicide deaths with occupation-related compensation claims in Korea

Abstract

Objectives: This study compared differences in age-standardized suicide mortality rates, personal characteristics (demographics, employment conditions, and details of suicide), and work-related stress by gender and occupation among workers who had committed suicide in Korea. Methods: Data comprised 413 suicide death claims lodged with the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance (IACI) from 2010 to 2018, which were coded.We calculated age-standardized suicide mortality rates by gender and occupation.The chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and t-test were conducted to examine gender differences. Frequency and percentage distribution by gender and occupation were calculated using descriptive statistics. Results: Regardless of gender, age-standardized suicide mortality rate was highest among "Managers." Women who died by suicide were significantly younger and more likely to be unmarried, live alone, and have fewer years of continuous employment than men. "Managers," "Professionals and Related Workers," and "Clerks" experienced similar work-related stresses, including "Difficult work to achieve," "Fail to achieve allocation workload," and "Change of job contents or workload." "Skilled Agricultural, Forestry and Fishery Workers," "Craft and Related Trades Workers," and "Equipment, Machine Operating and Assembling Workers" had higher workrelated stress related to "Severe disease/injury" or "Causing a serious accident" compared with other workers. Conclusions: Work-related stress related to suicide deaths differed by gender and occupation. The gender gap of labor market participation in Korea may affect gender differences in terms of demographics and employment conditions among workers who died by suicide. Our study suggests that gender-and occupation-specific strategies and policies to reduce work-related stress can prevent suicide among workers.

Comparison of Work-Related Stress in Cluster of Workers’ Suicides in Korea: Analysis of Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance, 2010–2017

“…Cluster 1 (Responsibility-burdened type) included all married men, mostly managers in their 40 s, who mainly experienced excessive responsibility associated with “difficult work to achieve,” “fail to achieve allocation workload,” “change of job contents or workload,” “high levels of time pressure,” “in charge of new business or company reconstruction,” and “own promotion.” This cluster represents a recently increasing type of suicide in Korea. As noted earlier [ 17 , 24 ], the reason the suicide rate of white-collar workers such as managers is increasing in Korea is that they are overworked in the face of tremendous competition and experience performance pressures. Similarly, in Japan, mental disorders and suicides caused by overwork are rapidly increasing [ 25 ], and people in management positions are dying by suicide to take responsibility for serious work-related stressful events [ 26 ].…”

“…The corresponding author supervised the entire coding process. A more detailed coding method has been described in our previous study [ 17 ].…”

“…The final coding schemes and variables that were extracted comprised: (1) demographics: age at death, sex, marital status, living conditions; (2) details of the suicide: method of suicide, location of suicide, suicide note; (3) clinical variables: history of psychiatric treatment, past diagnosis of mental disorders, previous suicide attempts, family history of mental disorders/suicide/suicide attempts, contact with psychiatry and/or emergency department services within the last one month, history of physical illness, drinking, problem drinking, smoking; (4) employment conditions: years of continuous employment, occupation, employment contract, status of workers, employment status at the time of death, main place of work, shift work, emotional labor; (5) personal stresses: family problems, illness in family, death of a family member/relative/friend, financial problems, interpersonal conflict with close relationships; (6) work-related stresses: 36 previously described [ 17 ] work-related stress variables from the 2011 Recognition Criteria for Occupation Mental Disorders in Japan [ 18 ], and work-related stress as listed in the Occupational Stress Event Checklist in COMWEL [ 19 ]: (i) Accident/Disaster: traffic accidents and poor physical work environment, (ii) Failure/Responsibility: no variables to add, (iii) Quantity/Quality: high levels of time pressure and lack of control over work, (iv) Role/Position: a sudden change in work-related matters, mismatch between work and ability/skill, and changing jobs, and (v) Interpersonal Conflict: no variables to add.…”

Mortality of Suicide and Cerebro-Cardiovascular Diseases by Occupation in Korea, 1997–2020

“…The economic crisis in Korea may have increased the work-related stress of middle managers, which can influence high suicide mortality [ 32 ]. MNG who have died by suicide in Korea experienced various work-related stresses, mainly related to excessive responsibilities compared to other occupations [ 7 , 8 ]. MNG are divided into senior management positions representing institutions or companies and management positions including middle managers within the companies [ 33 ].…”

“…Some East Asian countries, such as Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea, consider suicide and CCVD overwork-related diseases and provide compensation for death [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 ]. Death by CCVD and suicide have been found to be related to long working hours and various work-related stresses in Korea [ 7 , 8 , 9 ].…”