The prevalence of work-related psychological suffering was twice as high among women over the period 2007-2019.
- According to the Public Health France study, 4.6% of women were affected by work-related psychological suffering compared to 2.1% of men.
- The risk of reporting this deep discomfort was highest among executives.
- This psychological distress was caused by managerial and relational problems.
Mental suffering linked to work constitutes an important public health issue. “In addition to the serious consequences on the quality of life of affected workers (unemployment, poverty and marginalization), the economic cost for society caused by deleterious mental health is significant,” according to Public health France. Problem: psychological suffering does not appear in the tables of occupational illnesses of social security systems and is therefore little recognized as an occupational illness.
However, the frequency of work-related psychological suffering has increased significantly in France and affects women more. This is what a study published by Public Health France recently revealed. The latter was based on data from the Occupational Disease Surveillance Program and repeated surveys based on volunteer occupational physicians and their teams. Changes have been estimated since 2007.
Mental health: 4.6% of women express profound discomfort at work
According to the work, between 2013 and 2019, 281,379 employees had a medical examination, of which 51.3% were men. Among women, the socio-professional category most frequently observed was that of employees (49.8%), while among men, workers constituted 46.1% of the population. The most represented sector of activity was human health and social action among women (26.6%) and the industrial sector among men (22.9%). Four out of five employees were on permanent contracts.
The results showed that women were twice as affected by work-related psychological suffering as men (4.6% versus 2.1%). The risk of reporting this profound discomfort was higher among employees over 35 years old and among employees over 25 years old compared to those under 25 years old. “Mixed anxiety and depressive disorders were the psychological conditions most frequently reported by occupational physicians, followed by depressive disorders. Age, socio-professional category and sector of activity were associated with work-related psychological suffering. robustly.” Thus, the risk reached a maximum among executives.
Psychological suffering at work: managerial and relational issues involved
Organizational, relational and ethical factors were responsible for this psychological distress. Indeed, it arose from managerial and relational issues, such as “felt overloads or underloads of work” and “relations at work and violence”. Regarding burnout, around three out of five exposure agents were attributed to “management”, half of which were linked to “perceived workload overload or underload”. On the other hand, the share of “relations at work and violence” was half as high as for anxiety and/or depressive disorders.
“The increase in the prevalence of psychological suffering at work between 2007 and 2019 associated with the absence of a dedicated occupational illness table confirms the importance of characterizing it. Employees including gender, socio-professional categories and sectors of activity emerge as those most at risk should be prioritized in the implementation of preventive measures”, can we read in the conclusions of the study.
