Department of Preventive Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Institute of Health Policy and Management, Medical Research Center, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Occup Med (Lond). 2024 Jul 29;74(5):370-377. doi: 10.1093/occmed/kqae041.
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.
先前的研究表明，消防员、警察和教育部门的公务员，尤其是在西方国家，易受到精神压力和精神障碍的影响；然而，在韩国，这方面的证据还很缺乏。
本研究旨在确定消防员、警察和教师是否面临更高的职业心理健康障碍风险。
我们使用了公务员的工人赔偿索赔数据（2009-18 年）。我们的目标人群包括 46209 名公务员（行政和技术岗位的 9009 名公务员、23107 名警察、4417 名消防员和 8676 名教育部门的公务员）。职业与环境医学医师和内科医生对精神障碍进行了定义和确认。我们进行了 Cox 比例风险回归分析，以评估公务员职业心理健康障碍的风险。
与行政和技术岗位的公务员相比，教育部门的公务员（危险比[HR]2.16；95%置信区间[CI]：1.65-2.84）显示出统计学上显著更高的精神障碍风险；相反，消防员没有（HR0.80；95%CI0.51-1.27）。与行政和技术岗位的公务员相比，警察的精神障碍风险显著降低（HR0.17；95%CI0.11-0.25）。
与行政和技术岗位的公务员相比，教育部门的公务员职业心理健康障碍的风险更高，而警察和消防员的风险则较低。需要进一步研究公务员的心理健康意识，以证实我们的结果。
