The effects of workplace occupational mental health and related activities on psychological distress among workers: A multilevel cross-sectional analysis

摘要

Objective: To investigate the association of workplace occupational mental health (OMH) and related activities with psychological distress of workers in Japan. Methods: A total of 121 workplaces and their 3540 workers were surveyed using questionnaires assessing selected workplace OMH activities, demographic characteristics, psychological distress, and psychosocial work environment of the workers. A multilevel analysis was conducted. Results: Promotion of communication correlated significantly and negatively with psychological distress among workers after adjusting for the covariates (P < 0.01). Occupational mental health activities correlated marginally significantly and negatively with psychological distress (P = 0.06). Their moderating effect for the worker-level association between psychosocial work environment and psychological distress was not significant. Conclusions: The findings suggest that promotion of communication in the workplace is associated with reduced psychological distress among workers. In addition, OMH activities may also be useful in reducing psychological distress.