Low Control and High Demands at Work as Risk Factors for Suicide: An Australian National Population-Level Case-Control Study

Milner, Allison; Spittal, Matthew J; Pirkis, Jane; Chastang, Jean-François; Niedhammer, Isabelle; LaMontagne, Anthony D.

doi:10.1097/psy.0000000000000389

Cited by 33 publications

(33 citation statements)

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“…These psychosocial stressors have been identified as risk factors for a large number of common mental health problems, chronic illnesses and mortality [26–28]. Even more relevant to the current study, a recent publication using a population-level case-control design identified low control and high demands as key risk factors for suicide among employed males [29]. This corroborates past research from other countries [30–35] and highlights these as additional factors raising the risk of suicide among workers in these occupations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Male suicide among construction workers in Australia: a qualitative analysis of the major stressors precipitating death

et al. 2017

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BackgroundSuicide rates among those employed in male-dominated professions such as construction are elevated compared to other occupational groups. Thus far, past research has been mainly quantitative and has been unable to identify the complex range of risk and protective factors that surround these suicides.MethodsWe used a national coronial database to qualitatively study work and non-work related influences on male suicide occurring in construction workers in Australia. We randomly selected 34 cases according to specific sampling framework. Thematic analysis was used to develop a coding structure on the basis of pre-existing theories in job stress research.ResultsThe following themes were established on the basis of mutual consensus: mental health issues prior to death, transient working experiences (i.e., the inability to obtain steady employment), workplace injury and chronic illness, work colleagues as a source of social support, financial and legal problems, relationship breakdown and child custody issues, and substance abuse.ConclusionWork and non-work factors were often interrelated pressures prior to death. Suicide prevention for construction workers needs to take a systematic approach, addressing work-level factors as well as helping those at-risk of suicideElectronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-017-4500-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Male suicide among construction workers in Australia: a qualitative analysis of the major stressors precipitating death

et al. 2017

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“…If control over a job requires a level of understanding in terms of requirements for job tasks, our results suggest that not understanding English well enough to do an interview could possibly also be related to finding instructions difficult to understand in a job which could be further exacerbated by being older. The complicated relationships shown in the model for reporting low job control needs further investigation as this particular workplace psychosocial stressor has been associated with an increased risk of suicide [ 60 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Workplace psychosocial stressors experienced by migrant workers in Australia: A cross-sectional study

et al. 2018

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ObjectiveTo explore work-related psychosocial stressors among people of Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic-speaking backgrounds currently working in Australia.MethodsIn 2015, a telephone survey of 585 Vietnamese, Chinese and Arabic-speaking workers asked about workplace bullying, ethnic discrimination, job complexity, degree of control, security and fairness of payment along with demographic and employment information. Estimates of job-related psychosocial stressors were derived and regression analyses used to identify significant associations.ResultsAt least one workplace stressor was reported by 83% of the workers in the study. Education was significantly associated with experiencing any psychosocial stressor and also with the total number of stressors. Workers aged 45 years and older were more likely to be bullied or experience racial discrimination compared with younger workers of any ethnicity. There was a greater likelihood of reporting low control over a job when the interview was conducted in a language other than English and the workers were either Chinese or Arabic. Workers on a fixed-term contract, independent of ethnicity were more likely to report a job with low security. Overall psychosocial job quality decreased with education and was associated with occupation type which interacted with ethnicity and gender.ConclusionsThe results suggest that job-related psychosocial stressors are widespread but not uniform across ethnic groups. Further research into what drives differences in work experience for migrant groups would provide information to guide both employers and migrants in ways to reduce workplace psychosocial stressors.

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“…Platt provides an excellent overview of these studies in his chapter in the recently published International Handbook of Suicide Prevention [3]. Individual-level studies consistently show over-representation in suicide statistics and heightened risk for non-fatal suicidal behaviour in individuals who are unemployed [4,5,6], work in unskilled jobs or jobs with poor psychosocial working conditions [7,8,9], have insecure housing [10,11] and relatively low levels of educational attainment [10,12,13]. Area-level studies produce less consistent findings, with some studies showing that relatively deprived areas (as assessed by average income, for example) have higher suicide or suicide attempt rates than more affluent areas, and others finding no such relationship [3,12,14].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Socio-Economic Position and Suicidal Ideation in Men

Pirkis

Currier

Butterworth

et al. 2017

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People in low socio-economic positions are over-represented in suicide statistics and are at heightened risk for non-fatal suicidal thoughts and behaviours. Few studies have tried to tease out the relationship between individual-level and area-level socio-economic position, however. We used data from Ten to Men (the Australian Longitudinal Study on Male Health) to investigate the relationship between individual-level and area-level socio-economic position and suicidal thinking in 12,090 men. We used a measure of unemployment/employment and occupational skill level as our individual-level indicator of socio-economic position. We used the Index of Relative Socio-Economic Disadvantage (a composite multidimensional construct created by the Australian Bureau of Statistics that combines information from a range of area-level variables, including the prevalence of unemployment and employment in low skilled occupations) as our area-level indicator. We assessed suicidal thinking using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). We found that even after controlling for common predictors of suicidal thinking; low individual-level and area-level socio-economic position heightened risk. Individual-level socio-economic position appeared to exert the greater influence of the two; however. There is an onus on policy makers and planners from within and outside the mental health sector to take individual- and area-level socio-economic position into account when they are developing strategic initiatives.

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Low Control and High Demands at Work as Risk Factors for Suicide: An Australian National Population-Level Case-Control Study

Cited by 33 publications

References 37 publications

Male suicide among construction workers in Australia: a qualitative analysis of the major stressors precipitating death

Male suicide among construction workers in Australia: a qualitative analysis of the major stressors precipitating death

Workplace psychosocial stressors experienced by migrant workers in Australia: A cross-sectional study

Socio-Economic Position and Suicidal Ideation in Men

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