Occupational fatigue and mental health complaints among 8-hour shift workers of petrochemical industries in Iran

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Shift working is unavoidable in many industries with continual material processing such as petrochemical plants. So, the adverse effects of shift working on workers should be seriously considered. OBJECTIVE: This cross-sectional study evaluated occupational fatigue and mental health complaints and their relationship in rotating 8-hour shift workers. METHOD: In this study, 287 shift workers participated. The Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28) were used to evaluate the level of fatigue and mental health, respectively. RESULT: A relatively high prevalence of mental health complaints (particularly social dysfunction) and fatigue (especially general fatigue) were found among the study population. In general, 43.4% of participants reported a mental health problem. A moderate correlation was found between fatigue and mental health (r = 0.58). The stepwise regression model revealed that fatigue was significantly related only to "anxiety and insomnia" and "severe depression". CONCLUSION: This study revealed that the 8 h shift workers in studied areas are exposed to a considerable risk of mental health and fatigue. So, improving the ergonomics and health aspects of the workplace is recommended to reduce related risk factors.

Effects of Fatigue and Grit on Club Sports Coaches

“…These data are in line with the results of Watt et al [ 82 ] in the general Danish population without somatic disease. Although this level differs from that found by Bazazan et al [ 83 ] in a sample of petrochemical employees, these employees were subject to turnicity, working outside of regular hours.…”

Fatigue on Oil Refinery Workers and Related Factors

“…The results of this study complement the results of previous studies, which reported that marital status, education level, years of service, and mental health status of workers are significantly related to chronic fatigue syndrome [25]. The opposite report showed no correlation between demographic characteristics (age, body mass index, marital status, education level, and shift work) and work-related factors in oil and gas industry workers in Iran [26] and Malaysia [27]. Work fatigue for female workers at Holland with a high education level had 44% higher odds of reporting high WRF when compared with women with a low or intermediate level of education [9].…”

Current state of worker fatigue assessment and associated recommendations in oil and gas and petrochemical industries

“…Overall Fatigue. Ratings on Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI-20), which assesses five fatigue dimensionsgeneral fatigue, physical fatigue, reduced motivation, reduced activity, and mental fatigue, were reported to be high with shift workers (Bazazan et al, 2019;Bazazan et al, 2014;Rasoulzadeh et al, 2015). Two additional multidimensional fatigue surveys included the SOFI, which measures physical exertion, physical discomfort, lack of motivation, sleepiness, and lack of energy, and the Occupational Fatigue Exhaustion Recovery (OFER), which measures chronic fatigue, acute fatigue, and inter-shift recovery.…”