Assessment of Psychological Distress among Workers of a Confectionary

Objective: Psychiatric distress and work related stress may have a profound effect on an individual’s well-being .The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence rate of mental health problems and their distribution by age, educational level, marital status and years of employment in a chocolate manufacturing company in Iran .The General Health Questionnaire (a widely used screening instrument) which detects a wide range of psychological problems, mainly anxiety/depression spectrum, was used in this study. Method: The study group consisted of 144 workers who were screened using the GHQ-28 in the Persian language version. Workers with a GHQ score of 6 or more were defined as having psychiatric distress. Multiple logistic regression was performed to assess the odds ratios (ORs) for mental health problems including age, years of employment, marital status and educational level of the GHQ. Results: The prevalence of suspected mental health problems increased with age and years of employment (range 16.7%-41.2% and 15.2%-36.8%, respectively). The increased risks for mental health problems were observed for the range 11-20 (OR = 3.1; 95% CI 1.1–8.4) and >20 years employment (OR=3.7; 95%CI 1.2-11.3). Conclusions: The study results demonstrated a significant association between years of employment and suspected mental health problems.