title: Minor mental disorders in Taiwanese healthcare workers and the associations with psychosocial work conditions.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Healthcare workers face multiple psychosocial work hazards intrinsic to their work, including heavy workloads and shift work. However, how contemporary adverse psychosocial work conditions, such as workplace justice and insecurity, may contribute to increased mental health risks has rarely been studied. This study aimed to search for modifiable psychosocial work factors associated with mental health disorders in Taiwanese healthcare workers.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 349 healthcare workers were identified from 19,641 employees who participated in a national survey of Taiwan. Minor mental disorder was assessed using the five-item brief symptom rating scale. We compared psychosocial work characteristics and the prevalence of minor mental disorder in healthcare workers with that in a sociodemographically matched sample, and examined the associations of psychosocial work conditions with mental health status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Healthcare workers were found to have a higher prevalence of minor mental disorder than general workers, and they were more likely to have longer working hours, heavier psychological job demands, higher job control, more workplace violence, and a higher prevalence of shift work. Among healthcare workers, experiences of workplace violence, lower workplace justice, heavier psychological job demands, and job insecurity were associated with a higher risk for minor mental disorder, even after controlling for working hours and shift work.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Despite the fact that healthcare workers work longer hours and shift work, there were several modifiable psychosocial work conditions that should be targeted to improve their mental health.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, China Medical University Hospital, 2 Yude Road, Taichung, 40447, Taiwan; Department of Public Health, China Medical University, 2 Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan. Electronic address: s871065@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wan-Ju
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Health Policy and Management, Department of Public Health, National Taiwan University, 17 Xu-Zhou Road, Taipei, 100, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yawen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016272:Occupational Health; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology; D016526:Workload / Q000523:psychology; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: mental health; occupational health; psychological stress; workplace