Risks of occupational mental disorders in Korean civil servants (2009-18)

Previous studies have suggested that firefighters, police officers and civil servants in the education sector, particularly in Western countries, are vulnerable to mental stress and disorders; however, evidence for this association in South Korea is lacking.

This study aimed to identify whether firefighters, police officers and teachers are at a higher risk for occupational mental health disorders.

We used workers' compensation claims from civil servants (2009-18). Our target population comprised 46 209 civil servants (9009 civil servants in administrative and technical positions, 23 107 police officers, 4417 firefighters and 8676 civil servants in the educational sector). Occupational and environmental medicine physicians and medical doctors defined and confirmed mental disorders. We conducted Cox proportional hazards regression analyses to evaluate civil servants' risk of occupational mental health disorders.

Compared with the civil servants in administrative and technical positions, civil servants in the education sector (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.16; 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.65-2.84) showed a statistically significant increased risk of mental disorders; conversely, firefighters did not (HR = 0.80; 95% CI 0.51-1.27). Police officers had a significantly decreased mental disorder risk compared with civil servants in administrative and technical positions (HR = 0.17; 95% CI 0.11-0.25).

The risk of occupational mental health disorders was higher in civil servants in the education sector but lower in police officers and firefighters than civil servants in administrative and technical positions. Further studies on civil servants' mental health awareness are required to confirm our results.