Association between Near Work Time and Depression among Workers in South Korea

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between near work time and depression. METHODS: Data of 1,551 workers aged 19–49 years from the sixth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey were examined. The Patient Health Questionaire-9 scores were used to screen for depression. Participants who scored a total of 10 or above, which is suggestive of the presence of depression, were classified as the depression group; the rest were classified as normal. The correlation between daily near work time and depression was analyzed using multivariate logistic analysis after adjusting for other sociodemographic and health behavior-related variables. RESULTS: Multivariate logistic analysis found that workers with 3 or more hours of near work were more likely to report depression compared to the reference group who had 2 or fewer hours per day of near work (adjusted odds ratio, 2.471; 95% confidence interval, 1.062–5.747). CONCLUSION: Longer near work time was associated with depression among South Korea’s workers. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce near work time to prevent depression.