title: An examination of the long-term impact of job strain on mental health and wellbeing over a 12-year period.
abstract: Job strain has been implicated in a range of employee health outcomes including psychiatric health. Much of the literature is drawn from studies that utilise cross-sectional designs, whilst the long-term follow-up of participants is limited. We examine the short and long-term risks of job strain for depression and wellbeing over a 12-year period. In particular, we utilise measures of wellbeing to emphasise the importance of discriminating between indices of subjective and psychological wellbeing that complement measures of mental health.
  
  
  
  Participants (n = 2530) were aged between 40 and 44 years at baseline and were drawn from the Personality and Total Health (PATH) Through Life Project. Participants were observed once every 4 years for 12 years.
  
  
  
  A high strain job was associated with an increased risk of reporting sub-syndromal [RRR = 1.66 (95 % CI 1.23; 2.25), p < 0.001], minor [RRR = 1.92 (95 % CI 1.19; 3.10), p < 0.001] and major depression [RRR = 2.19 (95 % CI 1.30; 3.67), p < 0.001], but strain was not a long-term risk for depression 4 years later. In contrast, strain was a risk for both cross-sectional and longitudinal wellbeing outcomes. Moving into a high strain job was a risk for developing depression [RRR = 1.81 (95 % CI 1.26; 2.59), p < 0.001], but the cumulative exposure to a high strain job was not associated with poorer outcomes in adjusted models.
  
  
  
  Overall, our results emphasise the importance of current job strain, and the risk of moving into a high strain job, on adverse mental health and wellbeing outcomes. Effects were not consistent between indices of mental health, subjective or psychological wellbeing, supporting the need to dedifferentiate between wellbeing and mental health.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Building 54, Mills Road, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia. richard.burns@anu.edu.au.
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Building 54, Mills Road, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia.|Centre for Mental Health, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.|Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, Faculty of Business and Economics, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Butterworth
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research on Ageing, Health and Wellbeing, The Research School of Population Health, The Australian National University, Building 54, Mills Road, Canberra, ACT, 0200, Australia.
authors.forename: Kaarin J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Anstey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Job strain; Mental health; Wellbeing