Rates and Occupational Characteristics of International Seafarers with Mental Illness

Details

• Personal Author:
  Lefkowitz RY ; Redlich CA ; Slade MD
• Description:
  Background: Seafarers enable 90% of global commerce, working in isolation from social support and medical care. While occupational conditions of isolation may suggest possible excess risk of mental illness and suicide, research on seafarer mental illness is limited. Aims: To describe seafarers with mental illness and associated incidence rates in a large population of international seafarers. Methods: We used mental illness claims data from a large international marine insurance provider arising from working seafarers during the years 2007-15. We used descriptive statistics and calculated mental illness incidence rates in this seafarer population. Results: There were 278 seafarer mental illness claims in the study data. Claims were more often reported in deck workers (46%) and ratings (58%). The crude mental illness rate was 3.9 per 100 000 person-years. Conclusions: Using objective data on a large seafaring population, our analysis highlights the important issue of mental illness in this isolated and underserved international workforce. The low observed mental illness claims rate is likely due to the high threshold for claims reporting. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Mental Health Nervous System Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety Suicide
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Mental Health Disease Incidence Marine Workers Mental Illness Occupational Hazards Occupational Health Psychosocial Factors Psychosocial Hazard Seafarer
• ISSN:
  0962-7480
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Connecticut ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  279-282
• Volume:
  69
• Issue:
  4
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20056086
• Citation:
  Occup Med 2019 Jun; 69(4):279-282
• Contact Point Address:
  R. Y. Lefkowitz, Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale Occupational and Environmental Medicine Program, 367 Cedar Street, ESHA 2nd Floor, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
• Email:
  Rafael.lefkowitz@yale.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• Performing Organization:
  Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20150901
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational Medicine
• End Date:
  20180831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:72f90e93fe396f989787aa112c61971c6cf3fa4719e36da909084901baa844c32873dd686cbe2e1d68978de749450862a09ec175e4f6e1089a297049375b8cdc
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213773/cdc_213773_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 152.99 KB ]