Sickness absence due to mental disorders and psychosocial stressors at work

Mental disorders are the third leading cause of social security benefit due to sickness in Brazil. Occupational exposure to psychosocial stressors can affect the workers' mental health. The social security medical experts are responsible for characterizing if those sicknesses are work-related.

To evaluate the factors associated with sick leave due to mental disorders, in particular, the perception of workers on psychosocial factors at work.

This is an analytical study carried out in São Paulo, Brazil, with 131 applicants for sickness benefit due to mental disorders. Questionnaires were applied to assess the sociodemographic data, habits/lifestyle information, and perceived psychosocial factors at work.

The most common diagnosis was depressive disorders (40.4%). The medical experts considered 23.7% of all applications as work-related. Most of the participants were female (68.7%), up to 40 years of age (73.3%), married/common-law marriage (51.1%), with educational level greater than or equal to 11 years (80.2%), nonsmokers (80.9%), not alcohol consumers (84%), and practice of physical activities (77.9%). Regarding psychosocial factors, most of the participants informed a high job strain (56.5%), low social support (52.7%), effort-reward imbalance (55.7%), and high overcommitment (87.0%). There was no statistical association between the work-related mental disorders sickness benefits and independent variables.

The concession of social security sickness benefits is not associated with sociodemographic data, habits/lifestyle, or psychosocial factors at work. Occupational exposure to unfavorable psychosocial factors was reported by most workers on sick leave due to mental disorders. However, several cases were not recognized by the social security medical experts as work-related, which may have influenced the results of the associations.