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Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review

BACKGROUND: Seafaring has frequently been reported to be a ‘risky occupation’ in terms of both physical and mental health. Individuals working in seafaring professions are exposed to various stressors in the workplace, including social isolation, exposure to poor physical conditions and long work ho...

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Autores principales: Brooks, Samantha K., Greenberg, Neil
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150387/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35637491
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00850-4
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author Brooks, Samantha K.
Greenberg, Neil
author_facet Brooks, Samantha K.
Greenberg, Neil
author_sort Brooks, Samantha K.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Seafaring has frequently been reported to be a ‘risky occupation’ in terms of both physical and mental health. Individuals working in seafaring professions are exposed to various stressors in the workplace, including social isolation, exposure to poor physical conditions and long work hours. This systematic review aimed to update previous reviews by collating recent literature (published between 2012 and 2021) on the factors associated with mental health and wellbeing in seafaring personnel. METHODS: Four electronic databases were searched in April 2021 for primary peer-reviewed studies on factors associated with the mental health and psychological wellbeing of seafarers or interventions to improve the wellbeing of seafarers, published in English in or after the year 2012. Thematic analysis was used to synthesise the data and standardised measures of quality appraisal were used to assess risk of bias. RESULTS: Sixty-three studies were reviewed. Risk factors for poor mental health among seafarers appear to be younger age; being single; poor physical health; exposure to noise/vibration; feeling unsafe; high job demands; long working hours; night/irregular shifts; poor sleep; poor team cohesion; poor perception of management; poor social support; lack of autonomy; scheduling uncertainties; long duration at sea; and over-commitment. CONCLUSIONS: There are numerous steps that maritime managers could take to improve the wellbeing of their personnel, including increased monitoring of the potential for poor mental health in their staff, increasing crew numbers and provision of education and support.
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spelling pubmed-91503872022-06-01 Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review Brooks, Samantha K. Greenberg, Neil BMC Psychol Research BACKGROUND: Seafaring has frequently been reported to be a ‘risky occupation’ in terms of both physical and mental health. Individuals working in seafaring professions are exposed to various stressors in the workplace, including social isolation, exposure to poor physical conditions and long work hours. This systematic review aimed to update previous reviews by collating recent literature (published between 2012 and 2021) on the factors associated with mental health and wellbeing in seafaring personnel. METHODS: Four electronic databases were searched in April 2021 for primary peer-reviewed studies on factors associated with the mental health and psychological wellbeing of seafarers or interventions to improve the wellbeing of seafarers, published in English in or after the year 2012. Thematic analysis was used to synthesise the data and standardised measures of quality appraisal were used to assess risk of bias. RESULTS: Sixty-three studies were reviewed. Risk factors for poor mental health among seafarers appear to be younger age; being single; poor physical health; exposure to noise/vibration; feeling unsafe; high job demands; long working hours; night/irregular shifts; poor sleep; poor team cohesion; poor perception of management; poor social support; lack of autonomy; scheduling uncertainties; long duration at sea; and over-commitment. CONCLUSIONS: There are numerous steps that maritime managers could take to improve the wellbeing of their personnel, including increased monitoring of the potential for poor mental health in their staff, increasing crew numbers and provision of education and support. BioMed Central 2022-05-30 /pmc/articles/PMC9150387/ /pubmed/35637491 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00850-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research
Brooks, Samantha K.
Greenberg, Neil
Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
title Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
title_full Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
title_fullStr Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
title_full_unstemmed Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
title_short Mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
title_sort mental health and psychological wellbeing of maritime personnel: a systematic review
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9150387/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35637491
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40359-022-00850-4
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