Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers are at high risk for developing mental health complaints due to frequent exposure to risk factors such as high work demands, low work control and high emotional demands. Aim: To be able to plan a job-specific workers’ health surveillance (WHS) program properly, knowledge about the number of workers that could be expected to be the target for interventions should be known. Therefore we studied the prevalence of stress and common mental health complaints among Dutch healthcare workers for the disabled who voluntarily participated in WHS in a large healthcare organization.
Methods: In total, 615 workers positively responded to the invitation for the surveillance program; 449 workers were willing to participate in the research study by giving informed consent. We used validated scales to assess general stress, work-related fatigue, distress, burnout, and posttraumatic stress. The prevalence rate of each mental health complaint was calculated.
Results: Information from 402 workers was eligible for analysis (response rate 65%). The mental health prevalence rates were: general stress 22%, work-related fatigue 17%, distress 12%, burnout 6%, post-traumatic stress complaints 8%.
Conclusions: Common mental health complaints among healthcare workers of the disabled is common (one in every five workers) for general stress and work-related fatigue. Distress was found in about 10% of the workers. Burnout and post-traumatic stress was less common (1 in 19-20 workers). This study suggests that to ensure future workers’ health and quality of care, employers of healthcare workers of the disabled should be offered WHS with adequate intervention strategies periodically.

Keywords: Occupational health; Workers health surveillance; Health personnel; Care givers; Psychological stress; Mental fatigue; Burnout; PTSD; Prevalence