Job stress linked to depression
2009-04-28 10:07
New York - Want to reduce your
risk of depression? Cut on-the-job stress.
During a 10-year period, researchers found that workers who
had high-strain jobs but then later perceived their work as
less stressful had the same risk of major depression as their
peers in low-strain jobs.
"These results indicated that interventions targeted to
reducing job strain may significantly reduce the risk of
depression," Dr JianLi Wang, of the University of Calgary in
Alberta, said in a study in the American Journal of
Epidemiology.
Nearly five percent of workers in a given 30-day period
suffer major depression, the researchers said, and work stress,
also known as job strain, has been linked to depression risk.
The researchers studied 4 866 people who took part in the
Canadian National Population Health Survey. All had reported on
their job strain status in 1994-1995 and again in 2000-2001.
Strain
The researchers divided the people into four groups -
those with low job strain at both time points, with high job
strain at both points, with low job strain at the first time
point and high job strain at the second, and people who had
high job strain and then reported low job strain.
Eight percent of people with consistent job strain suffered
major depression during the study period, compared to 4%
of those who had low job strain.
For people whose jobs got less stressful, the risk of major
depression was 4.4%, compared to 6.9% for people
whose jobs became more stressful.
Within the group of people with high job strain at both
time points, the researchers found, only those who rated their
health as good or excellent at the beginning of the study were
at greater risk of major depression.
But people who rated their health as poor to fair weren't
at increased risk.
"These participants may have accepted the reality of having
poor health and of exposure to various risk factors for
health," Wang said.
The researchers called for studies to measure job strain in
shorter time increments to better understand how workplace
stress relates to depression.