How did the 2008-11 financial crisis affect work-related common mental distress? Evidence from 393 workplaces in Great Britain

The impact of national and international financial crises on mental health and well-being: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Evidence suggests that financial crises and poor mental health are reciprocally related, but no systematic review has been conducted to synthesise the existing literature on the impact of national and international financial crises on population-level mental health and well-being.

AIMS

The aim of this study was to systematically review the available literature on the global impact of financial crises on mental health and well-being outcomes.

METHODS

After registration on PROSPERO, a systematic search was conducted in PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Wiley, and Web of Science for papers published until 21 November 2022. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement, 98 papers were identified as meeting eligibility criteria. Included studies were assessed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and results were presented in a formal narrative synthesis.

RESULTS

Our findings show that financial crises are significantly associated with well-being and occurrence of psychological conditions. Several socio-demographic, cultural, and country-specific characteristics played a crucial role in the prevention of population mental health decline in periods of financial crises.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the findings of this review, evidence-based recommendations were developed to guide the design of policy actions that protect population mental health during and after financial crises.

People versus machines: The impact of being in an automatable job on Australian worker's mental health and life satisfaction

This study explores the effect on mental health and life satisfaction of working in an automatable job. We utilise an Australian panel dataset (HILDA), and take a fixed effects linear regression approach, to relate a person being in automatable work to proxies of their wellbeing. Overall, we find evidence that automatable work has a small, detrimental impact on the mental health and life satisfaction of workers within some industries, particularly those with higher levels of job automation risk, such as manufacturing. Furthermore, we find no strong trends to suggest that any particular demographic group is disproportionately impacted across industries. These findings are robust to a variety of specifications. We also find evidence of adaptation to these effects after one-year tenure on the job, indicating a limited role for firm policy.

Sex ratios and mental health: Evidence from China

While sex ratios (i.e., relative numbers of men and women) have been linked to various economic and social outcomes, how sex ratios affect mental health is underexplored. Using nationally representative data from the China Family Panel studies (CFPS) and Population Census, we evaluate the impact of sex ratios on mental health among Chinese men and explore potential mechanisms. Employing the instrumental variables (IV) approach where the One-Child Policy's mandated fertility limits and implementation are used as exogenous variations in local sex ratios, we find that higher local sex ratios increase depressive symptoms and probability of depression among Chinese men. The impact is stronger for men with lower levels of education and living in rural areas. Analyses of potential mechanisms show that higher sex ratios increase the likelihood of marriage delay and unemployment for men, and prolong working hours for the employed men. The findings are of direct relevance to the health and population policy in China.

Positioning work related stress - GPs' reasoning about using the WSQ combined with feedback at consultation

BACKGROUND

General practitioners (GPs) regularly handle cases related to stress and work capacity, but often find this work difficult. However, using an assessment tool in a structured way can increase GPs' awareness of the risk for sick leave and need of referrals to preventive measures. Today there is no established methodical practice for this in primary health care. The aim of this study was to explore GPs' reasoning about using the Work Stress Questionnaire combined with feedback at consultation as an early intervention to reduce sick leave.

METHODS

A focus group study was performed with 23 GPs at six primary health care centres. The discussions were analysed based on a method by Krueger.

RESULTS

Three themes emerged. Positioning work-related stress describes the need to make fundamental standpoints on stress and how it should be handled, to make sense of their work concerning work-related stress. Making use of resources focuses on GPs performing to the best of their ability using assigned resources to treat patients with stress-related ill health, even if the resources were perceived as insufficient. Practising daily work focuses on the GPs' regular and preferred way of working set against the degree of intrusion and benefits. The two related themes making use of resources and practising daily work were mirrored through the third theme, positioning work-related stress, to form an understanding of how GPs should work with patients perceiving work-related stress.

CONCLUSIONS

The GPs own competence and tools, those of other professionals and the time allocated were seen as important when treating patients perceiving ill health due to work-related stress. When resources were insufficient though, the GPs questioned their responsibility for these patients. The results also indicate that the GPs viewed their ordinary consultative way of working as sufficient to identify these patients. The intervention was therefore not seen as useful for early treatment of patients at risk of sick leave due to work-related stress. However, prevention is an important part of the PHC's responsibility, and strategies concerning stress-related ill health therefore need to be more thoroughly formulated and incorporated.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02480855 . Registered 20 May 2015.

Profession Loss Crisis at an Old Age: Specific Features, Factors, and Mechanisms of Coping

This article discusses the specific characteristics of profession loss crisis at an old age. Profession loss crisis is the last normative crisis of personal professional development that is caused by the completion of one's professional biography after reaching a certain age. The research employs a psychobiographic method and a critical events method. These methods are based on the use of a formalized biographical questionnaire worked out by Norakidze V.G. and reconstructed by Zeer E.F. The authors have identified and provided a detailed description of the main factors that cause profession loss crisis: random events, adverse circumstances while implementing professional plans, etc. The article outlines the main strategies for coping with this crisis: changing jobs, re-training, the assistance of colleagues and administration, etc. The authors suggest technologies to minimize the effects of these factors and overcome profession loss crisis effectively.