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Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generate nearly 80% of the jobs in China, but the dangerous work environment often found in these enterprises poses a major concern for public health. Psychosocial pressure and mental health problems among the workers are also common in SMEs. Ho...

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Autores principales: Zeng, Zhi, Guo, Yan, Lu, Liming, Han, Lu, Chen, Wen, Ling, Li
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25387579
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1162
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author Zeng, Zhi
Guo, Yan
Lu, Liming
Han, Lu
Chen, Wen
Ling, Li
author_facet Zeng, Zhi
Guo, Yan
Lu, Liming
Han, Lu
Chen, Wen
Ling, Li
author_sort Zeng, Zhi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generate nearly 80% of the jobs in China, but the dangerous work environment often found in these enterprises poses a major concern for public health. Psychosocial pressure and mental health problems among the workers are also common in SMEs. However, mental health of workers in SMEs is largely neglected in occupational health research and practice in China. The purpose of this study is to assess mental health of the workers and to explore the associations between physical and psychosocial work environment and workers’ mental health in SMEs in South China. METHODS: Data were collected in 2012 through a cross-sectional survey among 1200 workers working in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong, China. Mental health was measured by psychological well-being in the current study. Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) model was used as a theoretical framework to examine the psychosocial factors associated with workers’ psychological well-being. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and analysis was performed using bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: About three in ten workers (35.3%) in the sample had poor psychological well-being. Those who were men, younger in age, or migrant workers had worse psychological outcome in bivariate analyses. After controlling for individual variables (gender, age, marital status, and household registration), we found that longer weekly work hours (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.13 ~ 1.50), more exposure to hazardous work environment (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.10 ~ 1.44), higher job demands (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.12 ~ 1.49), and lower job autonomy (OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.60 ~ 0.81) were significant associated with worse psychological well-being. The results were consistent with predictions of the JDCS model. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the JDCS model is a useful framework in predicting psychological well-being among Chinese workers in SMEs. Future mental health promotion should focus on young migrant male workers as they appear to be most vulnerable in their psychological well-being. Both physical and psychosocial aspects of the work environment should be taken into account in policy making to prevent mental disorder and promote psychological well-being among workers in SMEs.
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spelling pubmed-42477692014-11-30 Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey Zeng, Zhi Guo, Yan Lu, Liming Han, Lu Chen, Wen Ling, Li BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generate nearly 80% of the jobs in China, but the dangerous work environment often found in these enterprises poses a major concern for public health. Psychosocial pressure and mental health problems among the workers are also common in SMEs. However, mental health of workers in SMEs is largely neglected in occupational health research and practice in China. The purpose of this study is to assess mental health of the workers and to explore the associations between physical and psychosocial work environment and workers’ mental health in SMEs in South China. METHODS: Data were collected in 2012 through a cross-sectional survey among 1200 workers working in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Guangdong, China. Mental health was measured by psychological well-being in the current study. Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) model was used as a theoretical framework to examine the psychosocial factors associated with workers’ psychological well-being. Data were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and analysis was performed using bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: About three in ten workers (35.3%) in the sample had poor psychological well-being. Those who were men, younger in age, or migrant workers had worse psychological outcome in bivariate analyses. After controlling for individual variables (gender, age, marital status, and household registration), we found that longer weekly work hours (OR = 1.30, 95% CI: 1.13 ~ 1.50), more exposure to hazardous work environment (OR = 1.26, 95% CI: 1.10 ~ 1.44), higher job demands (OR = 1.29, 95% CI: 1.12 ~ 1.49), and lower job autonomy (OR = 0.70, 95% CI: 0.60 ~ 0.81) were significant associated with worse psychological well-being. The results were consistent with predictions of the JDCS model. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that the JDCS model is a useful framework in predicting psychological well-being among Chinese workers in SMEs. Future mental health promotion should focus on young migrant male workers as they appear to be most vulnerable in their psychological well-being. Both physical and psychosocial aspects of the work environment should be taken into account in policy making to prevent mental disorder and promote psychological well-being among workers in SMEs. BioMed Central 2014-11-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4247769/ /pubmed/25387579 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1162 Text en © Zeng et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zeng, Zhi
Guo, Yan
Lu, Liming
Han, Lu
Chen, Wen
Ling, Li
Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey
title Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey
title_full Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey
title_fullStr Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey
title_full_unstemmed Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey
title_short Mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in Guangdong, China-a cross-sectional survey
title_sort mental health status and work environment among workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises in guangdong, china-a cross-sectional survey
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4247769/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25387579
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-1162
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