Mental health issues among international touring professionals in the music industry

Music industry touring professionals are generally assumed to be at elevated risk for mental health issues, highlighted by numerous high-profile suicides in recent years. Few studies have explored the prevalence of depression, suicidality and associated factors within this population. This study aims to gain an empirical understanding of the mental health issues among international touring professionals, with a particular focus on risk for depression and suicidality, and to identify potential protective factors. Data were collected between February-March 2020 as part of the Tour Health Research Initiative's Touring Health and Wellness Survey 2020. Using a multidimensional questionnaire with a sample of 1154 international touring professionals (artists and crew members), participants who completed all psychosocial measures (n = 508) demonstrated elevated levels of suicidality, risk for clinical depression, stress, anxiety and burnout. The median depression score for completers matched the recommended cutoff score of 20, which qualified 254 participants as high risk for clinical depression, while 200 (39.4%) demonstrated high scores for suicidality. In ROC curve analyses, all psychosocial measures were significant predictors of high suicidality, with a combined emotional and social measure yielding the highest classification accuracy (80%). Moderate strength linear relations were observed for all pairs of measures. Positive correlations were found among all risk factors (depression, anxiety, stress, and burnout) and these measures yielded negative correlations with the protective factors (mindfulness and the emotional/social measure). Findings suggest that interventions enhancing mindfulness and emotional/social well-being may serve as valuable treatment components for this population.