Relationships Between Mental Health Distress and Work-Related Factors Among Prefectural Public Servants Two Months After the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Background: In times of disaster, public servants face multiple burdens as they engage in a demanding and stressful disaster-response work while managing their own needs caused by the disaster. Purpose: We investigated the effects of work-related factors on the mental health of prefectural public servants working in the area devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake to identify some ideas for organizational work modifications to protect their mental health. Methods: Two months after the earthquake, Miyagi prefecture conducted a self-administered health survey of prefectural public servants and obtained 4,331 (82.8 %) valid responses. We investigated relationships between mental health distress (defined as K6 13) and work-related variables (i.e., job type, overwork, and working environment) stratified by level of earthquake damage experienced. Results: The proportion of participants with mental health distress was 3.0 % in the group that experienced less damage and 5.9 % in the group that experienced severe damage. In the group that experienced less damage, working >100 h of overtime per month (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 2.06; 95 % confidence interval [CI], 1.11-3.82) and poor workplace communication (adjusted OR, 10.96; 95 % CI, 6.63-18.09) increased the risk of mental health distress. In the group that experienced severe damage, handling residents' complaints (adjusted OR, 4.79; 95 % CI, 1.55-14.82) and poor workplace communication (adjusted OR, 9.14; 95 % CI, 3.34-24.97) increased the risk, whereas involvement in disaster-related work (adjusted OR, 0.39; 95 % CI, 0.18-0.86) decreased the risk. Conclusions: Workers who have experienced less disaster-related damage might benefit from working fewer overtime hours, and those who have experienced severe damage might benefit from avoiding contact with residents and engaging in disaster-related work. Facilitating workplace communication appeared important for both groups of workers. ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR
Chi-square test.We investigated relationships between mental health distress (defined as K6.13) and work-related variables (i.e., job type, overwork, and working environment) stratified by level of earthquake damage experienced.Software: Stata 12.0 for Windows (StataCorp LP, College Station, TX).
Web-based survey
Work-related (overwork per month, day off per week), health-related (sleep, appetite, alcohol intake), mental health distress K6, age, gender, earthquake-related damage
Two months after the earthquake, Miyagi prefecture conducted a self-administered health survey of prefectural public servants
obtained 4,331 (82.8 %) valid responses
We investigated the effects of work-related factors on the mental health of prefectural public servants working in the area devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake to identify some ideas for organizational work modifications to protect their mental health.
Clear comparision of survey variables.Facilitating workplace communication appeared important for both groups of workers. (severely damaged and less damaged workers)
In the severely damaged group, handling residents’ com-plaints increased the risk of mental health distress, althoughengagement in disaster-related work decreased the risk. In theless damaged group, working >100 h overtime per monthincreased the risk. In both groups, poor workplace communi-cation increased the risk.The effects ofproperty damage or loss of family members due to the earth-quake or a subsequent change in living environment or life-style seemed to detrimentally affect their health.To evaluate the participants’ mental health,
All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975 as revised in 2000. This study involved secondary analysis ofexisting data. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by theEthics Committee of the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry.
We investigated the effects of work-related factorson the mental health of prefectural public servants working inthe area devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake toidentify some ideas for organizational work modifications toprotect their mental health.
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