Job stress and depressive symptoms among Japanese fire fighters
Yasuaki Saijo1, Takeji Ueno, Yoshihiro Hashimoto
1Department of Health Science, Asahikwa Medical College, Midorigaoka, E2-1-1-1, Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan. y-saijo@asahikawa-med.ac.jp
Background:
Associations between job stresses, as assessed by theoretical job stress model and depressive symptoms among fire fighters have not been fully investigated. The purpose of this study is to clarify the factors of job stress that influence the depressive symptoms in Japanese fire fighters.
Methods:
The subjects involved 1,672 fire fighters from a local government. The questionnaire comprised age, gender, job type, job class, martial status, smoking, and drinking habit, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), and The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) generic job questionnaire.
Results:
A group showing depressive symptoms (CES-D > or = 16) included 373 subjects (22.3%). In a multivariate logistic regression analysis, high variance in workload, high intergroup conflict, high role conflict, and low self-esteem had significantly higher odds ratio for depressive symptoms.
Conclusions:
High variance in workload, high intergroup conflict, high role conflict, and low self-esteem were significantly related to depressive symptoms among Japanese fire fighters. Further prospective studies are needed to clarify the influence of these stress factors on other health outcomes, and to elucidate whether alleviation of these stress factors improve the mental health among fire fighters.
Related Concept Videos
Stress and Mental Health
Individuals with depression often experience challenges in both their personal and professional...
Psychological Responses to Stress
Introduction to Stress and Lifestyle
General State of Stress
Specifically, consider a tetrahedral element where one face, labeled XYZ, is perpendicular to the line OA, and the remaining faces align with the coordinate axes with point O as the origin. At any point, such as point O, the stress tensor can be used to determine the stress...
Stress Concentrations
The stress concentration...
Stress Concentrations


