Relationship Between Occupational Stress And Mental Health And Impact On Metabolic Syndrome In Female Police Officers

Objective:To explore the influence of occupational stress on mental health and to examine prospectively the association of mental health and occupational stress with the development of the metabolic syndrome(MS) in female police officers. Methods:1. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 481 female police officers(aged 18 to 55 years). The police officers were invited to fill in a self-administered questionnaire exploring their socio-demographic characteristics, occupational stress levels, and the Symptoms Checklist 90-items-Revised Questionnaire. A multiple logistic regression and a hierarchical multiple regression procedure was used to assess the effects of occupational stress on mental health.2. A total of 438 female police officers, free of MS at baseline, participated in a population-based study from 2007 to 2011. Mean observation time was 3.75 years. Various clinical, biochemical, and behavioral factors were measured at baseline, including assessment of mental health using the Symptoms Checklist 90-items-Revised Questionnaire and occupational stress using Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised Questionnaire. The development of MS was measured at follow-up based on CDS criteria. Results: 1. Influence of occupational stress on mental health in Tianjin female police officersThe positive symptoms rate of SCL-90-R is 24.9% in Tianjin female police officers. In the multivariate logistic regression analysis, after controlling for age, educational level, marital status, work time, smoking, alcohol use, leisure time physical activity and types of police, High level of occupational role stress and high levels of personal strain were risk factors for mental health, and the ORs were 2.117(95% CI =1.230~3.644) and 4.067(95% CI = 2.322~7.121) respectively. In addition, excluding role insufficiency, all other occupational role stress subscales and personal strain were significantly associated with poor mental health. With a hierarchical multiple regression, poor mental health was found to have a significant positive association with two of the fourteen identified sources of occupational stress. They were: physical environment and psychological strain. All of these occupational stress sources together explained 14.1% of the total variance.2. The association of mental health and occupational stress with the development of the MS in Tianjin female police officersFemale police officers with poor mental health at baseline(any SCL-90 factor scores >2) were more than triple as likely to develop MS than those with normal mental health(HR, 3.012; 95% CI, 1.666~5.447), after adjustments for(1) age, and socio-demographic variables;(2) health behaviors(smoking, alcohol use, and leisure time physical activity); and(3) family history of chronic diseases;(4) work time and types of police in the analysis. After considering the same confounding factors, high level of occupational role stress and high level of personal strain were risk factors for MS(HR, 3.019 and 3.326; 95%CI, 1.503~6.064 and 1.621~6.827, respectively); However, further considering mental health, the association remained statistically significant. After adjustment for all confounding factors, including mental health, MS was found to have a significant positive association with four of the fourteen identified sources of occupational stress. They were responsibility, physical environment, vocational strain and interpersonal strain. Conclusions:1. There was a significant association between poor mental health and occupational stress. Reducing or eliminating occupational stressors at work would benefit female police officers mental health.2. Poor mental health and high level of occupational stress at baseline increases the risk of developing MS during follow-up. This association remained robust after adjusting for age, socio-demographic variables, baseline health behaviors and other confounding variables. Especially the high level of occupational stress remained robust after controlling all confounding variables including mental health.