Psychosocial Work Environment and Incidence of Severe Depressive Symptoms: Prospective Findings from a 5-Year Follow-up of the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study

Abstract

The authors analyzed the impact of psychosocial work characteristics on the incidence of severe depressive symptoms among 4,133 (49% women) employees from a representative sample of the Danish workforce between 1995 and 2000. Psychosocial work characteristics at baseline included quantitative demands, influence at work, possibilities for development, social support from supervisors and coworkers, and job insecurity. Severe depressive symptoms were measured with the five-item Mental Health Inventory of the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey, with a cutoff point of 52. Women with low influence at work (relative risk (RR) = 2.17, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.23, 3.82) and low supervisor support (RR = 2.03, 95% CI: 1.20, 3.43) were at increased risk for severe depressive symptoms after exclusion of cases at baseline and adjustment for sociodemographic factors, baseline depression score, and health behaviors. Further adjustments for socioeconomic position did not change the result substantially. Additional analyses showed that a one-standard deviation increase on the influence scale resulted in a 27% decreased risk of severe depressive symptoms. Among men, job insecurity predicted severe depressive symptoms (RR = 2.04, 95% CI: 1.02, 4.07). The findings indicate that the work environment influences the risk of developing severe depressive symptoms and that different factors play a role for men and women.

The effects of unemployment and perceived job insecurity: a comparison of their association with psychological and somatic complaints, self-rated health and life satisfaction

“…Cheng and Chan 2008;De Witte 1999;Ferrie et al 2005;Levenstein et al 2001;McKee-Ryan et al 2005;Mohr and Otto 2011;Paul andMoser 2006, 2009;Rugulies et al 2006;Virtanen et al 2002). More specifically, short-term (versus longterm) unemployed individuals and secure (versus insecure) permanent workers reported less psychological complaints, less subjective complaints load, and a better health, and were more satisfied with their life.…”

“…In addition, perceived job insecurity has been found to relate to poorer psychological health and well-being, for example, psychological distress (Virtanen et al 2002) and minor psychiatric morbidity (e.g. Ferrie et al 2005;Rugulies et al 2006).…”

“…In addition, perceived job insecurity has been found to relate to poorer psychological health and well-being, for example, psychological distress (Virtanen et al 2002) and minor psychiatric morbidity (e.g. Ferrie et al 2005;Rugulies et al 2006).Despite this strand of research, little is known about the relative impact of unemployment and perceived job insecurity for individuals' health and well-being, perhaps because associated research comes from different streams of literature. This is nevertheless an intriguing issue from a practical and theoretical point of view.…”

Bullying at work and onset of a major depressive episode among Danish female eldercare workers

“…However, when we compared the responders with the 1998 employees who had left their workplace, we found that both baseline bullying [ Of the 6304 participants who had participated in both rounds, 234 were men. We excluded them from the analyses because previous research on work environment and severe depressive symptoms indicated differential effects for men and women (19). Hence, analyses should not be adjusted but stratified by gender, which was not possible in the present study due to the small number of male participants.…”

Work-relatedness of mood disorders in Denmark

“…The following variables have been suggested to be associated with depression: job dissatisfaction (9), long working hours (10)(11)(12)(13), job strain (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20), high job demands (21)(22)(23)(24), low job control (19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26), job insecurity (18,22,26), low social support at work (19,21,22,24,26,27), effort-reward imbalance (20,28), workplace bullying (29), conflicting demands (23), and organizational injustice (15). Work should, however, not be regarded only as a negative factor in the development of mood disorders.…”