Life events and psychological distress among police officers six years post Hurricane Katrina

Details

• Personal Author:
  Andrew, Michael E. ; Burchfiel CM ; McCanlies EC ; Mnatsakanova A ; Violanti JM
• Description:
  Objectives: To investigate if organisational support modifies associations between life events and psychological symptomatology among police officers post Hurricane Katrina. Method: Complete data on depression [Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D)], PTSD [Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist - Civilian version (PCL-C)] and life change events [Recent Life Changes Questionnaire] were available for 98 police officers assessed 6 years after Katrina. The Survey of Perceived Organisational Support scale was used to assess organisational and supervisory support. Linear regression and ANOVA/ANCOVA were used to compare mean levels of depression and PTSD across quartiles of total life change events score. Results: Mean age was 42.5 years; 27% were female. Mean levels of CES-D and PCL-C did not differ significantly between male and female officers. Total life events score was positively and significantly associated with depression and PTSD in both unadjusted and multivariable adjusted models (p < 0.001). Among officers who scored low on organisational support, mean levels of CES-D and PCL-C increased significantly with the increasing quartiles of total life event score (p = 0.005 and p = 0.001, respectively) in fully adjusted models. Associations were not significant among officers who scored high on organisational support. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that a higher number of life change events is significantly associated with increasing symptoms of depression and PTSD among officers, and these associations are modified by organisational support. Previous studies suggest that stressful life events are associated with chronic depression. Future studies are warranted to investigate independent contributions of individual life events in associations involving depression, PTSD and support. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Aging Epidemiology Law Enforcement Men Mental Health Morbidity Mortality Occupational Health Safety Stress, Psychological Women Workplace

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• Keywords:
  Age-groups Humans Morbidity-rates Mortality-data Police-officers Psychological-factors Psychological-stress Statistical-analysis Stress Traumatic-injuries Work-environment Workers

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• ISSN:
  1351-0711
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Illinois ; New York ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  HELD - Health Effects Laboratory Division
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Volume:
  71
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20044614
• Citation:
  Occup Environ Med 2014 Jun; 71(Suppl 1):A61
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, New York
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20100901
• Source Full Name:
  Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Challenges for Occupational Epidemiology in the 21st Century, EPICOH 2014, June 24-27, 2014, Chicago, Illinois
• Supplement:
  1
• End Date:
  20130831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2f321cffaae2a9130a337891b102b534df06058c2fa55b6458577560492144543e168962711db9749b51647629140a8bebae5f062063fff366988fb6c11f8fe1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200281/cdc_200281_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 69.02 KB ]