Health and Safety Effects of Accidents on Intermodal Transportation Workers: A Study of Psychological Health Concerns and Depression of Operating Employees Involved in Critical Incidents

摘要

Depression is a disorder recognized by the American Psychiatric association (APA, 1994). Recently, concerns about the lack of recognition of the prevalence and effects of depression has promoted studies which have estimated the cost of untreated depression in the workplace to be in the billions of dollars. (Kessler & Frank, 1997; Wang, et al., 2006). A recent study by Wang et al (2003) found that depression was significantly associated with quantity, quality and overall work performance, absenteeism (in hours off) and critical incidents which consisted of accidents, injuries or special success or failures. Specifically, depression was associated with approximately 188 days absent per 100 workers. Similarly, depression was associated with 8.9 excess negative critical incidents (e.g. accidents) as compared to 14.7 for customer service representatives and 4.0 for executives. These and other data point to the need to look more closely at the effects of depression on work performance in the railroad industry.