Health Complaints, Mental Status and Quality of Life among the Aquaculture Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Northern Region of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Aquaculture is seen as an essential food-producing sector for improving global food security and nutrition indices. This cross-sectional study examined the health complaints and mental health status of aquaculture workers, as well as their relationship with quality of life, with respect to the brackish water and freshwater aquaculture cultivation system in Penang, Malaysia. The workers’ health complaints were collected, and mental health status was evaluated as means of depression, anxiety, stress and self-esteem. Self-perceived quality of life was assessed using a structured questionnaire. This study involved the participation of 88 brackish water (84.6%) and 16 freshwater (15.4%) aquaculture workers. A total of 72.7% of the brackish water aquaculture workers were aged beyond 50 years old and had worked within five years (77.3%) in the aquaculture industry. Both brackish water and freshwater cultivation workers were confronted with fatigue, pain and insomnia. Up to 48%, 40.4%, 26% and 24% of them were facing depression, anxiety, stress and low self-esteem, respectively. A total of 3.4% of the brackish water aquaculture workers were having bad quality of life. The complaints of neck/shoulder/arm pain (F = 13.963; p < 0.001), back pain (F = 10.974; p < 0.01), hand/wrist pain (F = 8.041; p < 0.01), knee/hip pain (F = 12.910; p < 0.01) and insomnia (F = 10.936; p < 0.01) were correlated with bad quality of life among the workers. For mental health status, self-esteem (F = 4.157; p < 0.05) was found to be negatively correlated with quality of life scores. The results outlined the concerning level of health complaints and psychological distress among the aquaculture workers. The study emphasized the importance of developing an appropriate occupational health strategy in the aquaculture industry. Longitudinal investigations aimed to explore the effects of psychological distress on employment productivity among the high-risk workers are warranted.

Prevalence and Associated Factors of Depression Symptoms Among Aquaculture Workers in Hai Phong, Vietnam: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Rate of depression symptoms among aquaculture workers: the prevalence of depression symptoms among aquaculture workers was 28.7%, with a breakdown of mild depression at 20.9%, moderate depression at 6.3%, severe depression at 1.5%, with no extremely severe depression (Table 2). Multivariate analysis of factors related to depression symptoms among aquaculture workers, the results (Table 3) revealed the following: females had a 2.03 times higher risk of depression compared to males (95% CI 1.56-2.63; p-value<0.001); being single or divorced carried a 1.44 times higher risk of depression than being married (95% CI 1.04- Additionally, another study on the mental health and quality of life of aquaculture workers in Malaysia reported the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress as 48%, 40.4%, and 26%, respectively 21 . Therefore, the prevalence of depression symptoms among aquaculture workers is quite high.…”

Simple Thermal Treatment of Waste Oyster ( Crassostrea belcheri) Shells for the Production of Calcium Minerals in Biomaterials Application

“…Figure Previous studies conducted a TGA analysis on different species of oyster shells. The results of CaCO 3 thermal decomposition are summarized in Table 1 [25][26][27]. The completion temperature of CaCO 3 decomposition is lower than other works in the literature.…”