Prevalence of mental disorders among shift work hospital nurses in Shiraz, Iran

The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of mental disorders among shift work hospital nurses in Shiraz. One thousand one hundred and ninety five nurses from 12 general hospitals were investigated by Persian version of General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28) as screen tool. Using a checklist, structured observations were made to assess working environment. Selecting a score of 6 in GHQ-28 as cut-off point, 45.4% of nurses were found to suffer from mental disorders and this was more common among females. Similarly, anxiety and somatic symptoms were more prevalent than other types of mental disorders (43.2 and 34.5%, respectively). The prevalence of depression and social dysfunction were 11.2 and 79.5%, respectively. Shift work was significantly associated with anxiety (p < 0.05). Likewise, marital status was significantly associated with depression and social dysfunction (p < 0.001). It was concluded that the mental health pattern in hospital nurses was similar to that of general Iranian population as the referent population. However, the prevalence rates of social dysfunction, somatisation and anxiety symptoms among the nurses were higher than the referent population.