OBJECTIVETo explore depressive symptoms and influencing factors in employees from 13 enterprises.

METHODSA total of 6711 workers from 13 enterprises were investigated by cluster sampling, and data were collected anonymously between November 2008 and June 2009. Job satisfaction, occupational stressors, strains, coping strategy, and social support were measured using occupational stress instruments, job content questionnaire, and effort-reward imbalance questionnaire.

RESULTSMedian and P25~P75 values of depression score were 14 and 9~21, respectively. The depression score of male workers (16.31 ± 10.12) was significantly higher than that of female workers(14.50 ± 9.08) (Z=4.09, P<0.01). The depression score of managers was lowest (12.89 ± 8.70), and the front-line workers scored highest (16.02 ± 9.94), with a significant difference between the two groups (χ² =9.90, P<0.01). The depression score of shift workers (16.79 ± 9.974) was significantly higher than that of non-shift workers (14.81 ± 9.63) (Z=53.43, P<0.01). The depression scores of workers with weekly job times of ≤ 40 h, ~50 h, ~59 h, and ≥ 60 h were (14.70 ± 9.94), (15.76 ± 9.84), (15.46 ± 9.91), and (19.70 ± 10.67), respectively (χ² = 31.79, P <0.01). Correlation analysis revealed that depression score was negatively correlated with the scores of job control (r=-0.236, P <0.01), reward (r=-0.443, P<0.01), job satisfaction (r=-0.418, P<0.01), positive affectivity (r=-0.307, P <0.01), superior support (r=-0.287, P<0.01), colleague support (r=-0.235, P<0.01), and coping strategy (r=-0.208, P<0.01), but positively correlated with the scores of external effort (r=0.225, P<0.01), inherent effort (r=0.248, P<0.01), psychological demands (r = 0.246, P <0.01), physical demands (r=0.246, P<0.01), and negative affectivity (r=0.525, P<0.01). Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that the risk of depressive symptoms in workers with high negative affectivity was about four times as high as that in workers with low negative affectivity. The risks of depressive symptoms in workers with low reward, having disease in the past six months, and with high inherent effort were 1.62, 1.50, and 1.48 times, respectively, as high as those for their counterparts.

CONCLUSIONOccupational stress, individual factors, health status, and shift work affect the depressive symptoms of workers. Reducing negative affectivity and increasing rewards are main measures to relieve depressive symptoms.