Prevalence of serious psychological distress among slaughterhouse workers at a United States beef packing plant

Abstract

Abstract. BACKGROUND:Workers in the animal slaughter and processing industry in the United States experience high rates of occupational injury as well as stressful work conditions, yet mental health in this workforce remains largely unstudied. OBJECTIVE: To assess prevalence of serious psychological distress (SPD) in a sample of industrial US slaughterhouse workers. PARTICIPANTS: Workers at an industrial beef packing plant in Nebraska, United States (n = 137). METHODS: We interviewed workers using the Kessler-6, a well-validated measure of non-specific anxiety disorders, to assess SPD. We compared SPD prevalence with national estimates from 2009 CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Study. RESULTS: Prevalence of SPD among workers was 4.4%, compared to United States population-wide prevalence of 3.6%. Prevalence of mild and moderate psychological distress among these workers (14.6%) was also higher than national estimates. Recent occupational injury, work area and job activities were not associated with elevated prevalence of SPD. Non-Hispanic white workers experienced elevated prevalence of SPD compared to Hispanic or Latino workers (prevalence odds ratio: 6.4; CI: 1.3, 30.5; p = 0.012). CONCLUSION: Workers at a US industrial slaughterhouse experienced higher prevalence of SPD compared to United States population-wide estimates, but occupational risk factors for this outcome were not identified.

COVID-19 Effects on Livestock Production: A One Welfare Issue

“…Additionally, the processing portion (including slaughter and packing) of farm-to-fork production is inherently more dangerous than non-food system industries (24). Meat, dairy, and fish production is more dangerous than other food production, with relatively high levels of severe equipmentrelated and assault-related injuries, and more fatalities from assaults from co-workers and animals and exposure to harmful substances (24), together with increased psychological distress among slaughterhouse workers (25). Those on the processing line work in very close proximity where food safety and the risk of zoonotic disease direct hygiene practices, rather than personto-person disease spread.…”

The Psychological Impact of Slaughterhouse Employment: A Systematic Literature Review

“…Among the studies that focused on the prevalence of mental health issues, all were quantitative, utilizing self-report questionnaire measures, with acceptable or above Cronbach’s αs, and had a control or reference group. Two articles solely compared their findings against the national average (Lander et al, 2016; Leibler et al, 2017). Lipscomb and colleagues (2007) compared SHWs to individuals from the same community.…”

“…One study examined the relationship between ethnicity and anxiety, finding that non-Hispanic Whites were six times more likely to experience serious psychological distress. However, they attributed the finding to anxiety caused by their minority ethnicity status within the workplace (Leibler et al, 2017). Emhan and colleagues (2012) found that SHWs also had significantly higher levels of psychoticism, somatization, anger, and hostility compared with butchers and office workers.…”

“…SHWs have described suffering from trauma, intense shock, paranoia, anxiety, guilt and shame (Victor & Barnard, 2016), and stress (Kristensen, 1991). There was evidence of higher rates of depression (Emhan et al, 2012;Horton & Lipscomb, 2011;Hutz et al, 2013;Lander et al, 2016;Lipscomb et al, 2007), anxiety (Emhan et al, 2012;Hutz et al, 2013;Leibler et al, 2017), psychosis (Emhan et al, 2012), and feelings of lower self-worth at work (Baran et al, 2016). Of particular note was that the symptomatology appeared to vary by job role.…”

“…(continued) compared their findings against the national average (Lander et al, 2016;Leibler et al, 2017). Lipscomb and colleagues (2007) compared SHWs to individuals from the same community.…”