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Depression and occupational injury: results of a pilot investigation
Pamela B Peele1, David J Tollerud
1Department of Health Policy and Management, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261, USA. peele@pitt.edu
Objective:
Even mild clinical depression can cause decreased vigilance, attention span, increased irritability, and insomnia-all well-known precursors to occupational injury. This pilot project explores the relationship between occupational injury and depression.
Method:
One hundred twenty-one individuals with recent work-related injuries and 140 without work-related injuries completed a self-administered depression screening instrument (PHQ-9). We compared the two groups using bivariate analyses. The impact of depression on injury was examined using logistic regression analysis controlling for employment history, marital status, age, and sex.
Results:
Overall, injured workers in this study were not more likely to be depressed than a comparison group of uninjured workers. However, injured women had significantly higher depression scores than non-injured women (P = 0.04); no such difference was found for men.
Conclusions:
These data suggest that depression may serve as a precursor to occupational injury for women.
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