Below the tip of the iceberg: A qualitative perspective of psychological and social aspects of occupational diseases

Abstract

The inadequacy of preventative measures to combat the harmful effects of the working environment leads to circumstances where workers develop occupational diseases. Workers lose their good health and also experience other challenges in various aspects of their daily lives such as being forced to quit their jobs or showing poor performance at work. This study was carried out to observe, understand and analyse the psychological and social consequences that occupational diseases may give rise to. Methods: It is a quaWlitative study and involves in-depth interviews with workers who were diagnosed with occupational diseases. Interviews, that were conducted with 20 participants through the use of a voice recorder, cover both medical and legal aspects. A targeted sample, chosen to represent the full spectrum of illness, was taken from those who had received medical or legal confirmation of occupational disease. The data was generated manually by the researchers and generated through the thematic analysis technique, again, by the researchers without the use of a software. Results: We found that the process of diagnosing occupational disease was in itself a stressor and workers experienced negative effects on their mental health, family relationships, gender roles as well as their individual, social and daily living skills. Conclusion: These effects were manifested in the lives of participants suffering from occupational diseases as stigmatization, depression, social adjustment disorders, concerns about the future, fear of unemployment, impaired gender role and loss of status. The main contribution of this study to the available studies is to demonstrate the necessity to include "stigma-related information" in the diagnosis and treatment processes of occupational diseases.