Depressive symptoms among Thai male seafarers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Prevalence of depressive symptoms among seafarers is higher than the general population because of their unique work conditions. Factors that can be changed must be considered and promptly addressed in order to decrease the prevalence of depression. This study aims to clarify the prevalence of depressive symptoms and its related factors among Thai seafarers in an effort to contribute to policies and to prevent depression among Thai seafarers. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among 381 male seafarers working onboard ocean-going vessels of five Thai shipping companies. The questionnaire items comprised of personal factors, working factors and depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Thai version of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. First, the chi-square test was used for univariate analysis. Then, variables significantly associated by the chi-square test were used for multivariate logistic regression analysis (employing the stepwise method) as independent variables. Results The average age of participants in this study was 36.4 years. Prevalence of depressive symptoms was 19.5%. One half of the participants (58.3%) reported subjective sleep problems, and most (75.1%) experienced poor coping behaviors. Two thirds (67.5%) were officers, and 10.1% of participants reported that they sometimes or never performed occupational safety behaviors. Regarding work environments, 62.2% reported that their work was disturbed from performing repetitive tasks. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed two personal factors; sleep problems (Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR) = 7.97, 95% Confidence interval (CI) = 3.52–18.05) and poor coping behaviors (AOR = 4.46, 95%CI = 1.61–12.34), and three working factors; job assignment (AOR = 2.50, 95%CI = 1.33–4.70), inadequate occupational safety behaviors (AOR = 4.51, 95%CI = 1.85–11.01) and performing repetitive task (AOR = 2.27, 95%CI = 1.16–4.45), were significantly associated with depression. Conclusion During COVID-19 pandemic, 19.5% of Thai male seafarers had depressive symptoms. Personal and working factors including subjective sleep problems, poor coping behaviors, job assignment, performing inadequate occupational safety behaviors and performing repetitive tasks were risk factors of depressive symptoms among Thai male seafarers. Monitoring work environment rigorously and coping with work-related stress of the occupational safety behaviors program should be suggested.

Covid-19 and after: About human factors and welfare in shipping

“…The situation impacted seafarers and families. Notably, the pandemic has accentuated occupational health and safety deficiencies at sea and crew welfare (Pauksztat, Andrei, Grech 2022;Bakhsh 2021;Clayton 2021;Shan 2022;Brooks, Greenberg 2022) and exposed seafarers to high stress, anxiety and depression, as widely documented (Carol-Dekker 2022; Carrera-Arce, Bartusevičienė, Divari 2022; Russtam Suhrab Ismail et al 2021;Slišković 2020;Wong 2021;De Beukelaer 2021b;Kaptan, Kaptan 2021;Jonglertmontree et al 2023;Lucas et al 2021;Okeleke, Aponjolosun 2020;Radic et al 2020;Mejia et al 2021;Hayes-Mejia, Stafström 2023). Confronted with the crisis, governments and shipping industry failed to adopt proactive measures to address seafarers' mental health problems (Lin, Sarza 2024) despite the potential consequences of the pandemic impact on retention (Devereux, Wadsworth 2022;Lau, Kawasaki 2022;Erdem, Tutar 2022;Hu 2020;Kaur, Joy 2023;Wang, Miao, Feng 2023;Nguyen et al 2023), and the shipping industry image (Chen et al, 2022;Lucas et al, 2023;Wang et al, 2023).…”