Salud Ocupacional

910

Medicina (Kaunas) 2009; 45(11)

Psychosocial job characteristics, social support, and sense
of coherence as determinants of mental health among nurses
Vilija Malinauskienė, Palmira Leišytė1, 2, Romualdas Malinauskas3
Institute of Cardiology, 1Department of Internal Diseases, Kaunas University of Medicine,
2
Kaunas 2nd Clinical Hospital, 3Lithuanian Academy of Physical Education,Lithuania
Key words: mental health; nurses; psychosocial job characteristics; social support; sense of
coherence.
Summary. Objective. Employment in human service occupations as nursing is reported to
display high risk for mental health, and occupational stress has been found to be one of the
major work-related health problems. The objective of the study was to explore the associations
betweenpsychosocial job characteristics, social support, and internal resources as determinants
of mental health status in a sample of Kaunas district nurses.
Material and methods. A survey was conducted among the nurses of Kaunas district community
in 2008–2009. A total of 638 nurses were randomly selected, and 372 filled in the questionnaire
(response rate, 58.3%). Mental distress was measured usingthe Goldberg 12-item General Health
Questionnaire and psychosocial job characteristics using the Swedish version of the Karasek
Demand-Control questionnaire. Sense of coherence was measured by the three-item version
questionnaire. The logistic regression was performed.
Results. Less than one-third (23.0%) of nurses had symptoms of mental distress; 31.9% of
nurses had weak sense of coherence.High job demands were associated with mental distress
after adjustment for age, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, job control, social
support, sense of coherence, family crisis, self-rated health as compared to one year ago
(OR=2.15; 95% CI, 1.07–4.30), low job control (OR=1.22; 95% CI, 0.64–2.31), job strain-low
social support at work (OR=3.78; 95% CI, 2.08–6.87).Conclusions. Mental distress among the nurses of Kaunas district was associated with adverse
psychosocial job characteristics. Job strain-low social support at work was the strongest risk
factor for mental distress among nurses. Strong sense of coherence as personal characteristic
served as a buffer, protecting nurses against the development of mental health problems.
Introduction
The World HealthOrganization (WHO) defines
mental health as a state of wellbeing in which every
individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope
with the normal stresses of life, can work productively
and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to
her or his community (1). Mental health is a term used
to describe either a level of cognitive or emotional
wellbeing or an absence of a mental disorderand may
include an individual’s ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and efforts to
achieve psychological resilience (the ability to bounce
back from adversity). It is estimated that approximately 450 million people worldwide have mental
health problems (WHO). State strategy for mental
health was developed in Lithuania for 2005–2010 (2).
The determinants ofmental health include social
connections, family life, and work stress (3).

From the public health perspective worldwide, it
was defined that some professions and their occupational characteristics are suggested to have associations with mental distress. Employment in human
service occupations (e.g. health care, education, social
work) is reported to display high risk for mental
health, andthe occupational stress has been found to
be one of the major work-related health problems (4).
The study in the United Kingdom among general practice staff (practice managers, nurses, receptionists, and
other primary care workers) found the prevalence of
mental distress to be 23% using the Goldberg 12-item
General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) (5).
In 2005, more than 20% of workers from...