Gender, Depression, and Blue-Collar Work: A Retrospective Cohort Study of US Aluminum Manufacturers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Cullen MR ; Eisen EA ; Elser H ; Jewell NP ; Meausoone V ; Rehkopf DH
• Description:
  Background: Industrial blue-collar workers face multiple work-related stressors, but evidence regarding the burden of mental illness among today's blue-collar men and women remains limited. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we examined health and employment records for 37,183 blue- and white-collar workers employed by a single US aluminum manufacturer from 2003 to 2013. Using Cox proportional hazards regression, we modeled time to first episode of treated depression by gender and occupational class. Among cases, we modeled rates of depression-related service utilization with generalized gamma regression. Results: Compared with their white-collar counterparts, blue-collar men were more likely to be treated for depression (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.3; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.1, 1.4) as were blue-collar women (HR = 1.4; 1.2, 1.6). Blue-collar women were most likely to be treated for depression as compared with white-collar men (HR = 3.2; 95% CI = 2.1, 5.0). However, blue-collar workers used depression-related services less frequently than their white-collar counter-parts among both men (rate ratio = 0.91; 95% CI = 0.84, 0.98) and women (rate ratio = 0.82; 95% CI = 0.77, 0.88). Conclusions: Blue-collar women were more likely to be treated for depression than white-collar workers, and blue-collar women were most likely to be treated for depression compared with white-collar men. However, blue-collar men and women used depression-related healthcare services less frequently than white-collar workers. These findings underscore that blue-collar women may be uniquely susceptible to depression, and suggest that blue-collar workers may encounter barriers to care-seeking related mental illness other than their insurance status. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Cohort Studies Manufacturing And Industrial Facilities Mental Health Nervous System Occupational Health Safety Sex Characteristics Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  Analytical Models Antidepressants Author Keywords: Depression Cohort Studies Gender Differences Gender Factors Health Care Industrial Environment Job Analysis Job Stress Manufacturing Mental Health Occupational Class Occupations

  More +
• ISSN:
  1044-3983
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  435-444
• Volume:
  30
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20055452
• Citation:
  Epidemiology 2019 May; 30(3):435-444
• Contact Point Address:
  Holly Elser, Division of Epidemiology, UC Berkeley School of Public Health, 2121 Berkeley Way West, Berkeley, CA 94704
• Email:
  holly.stewart@berkeley.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2019
• NORA Priority Area:
  Manufacturing
• Performing Organization:
  Stanford University
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20110901
• Source Full Name:
  Epidemiology
• End Date:
  20200831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:4a9bf0a4bf70945938c14854c254ac00dcd30a37ca5cc250c7c90a0a7694587b6f1b4a66fbf325b45f983285ba9f69f3493f4dc65ed22698b5d5a26943587f3a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/213298/cdc_213298_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 189.36 KB ]