The roles of socioeconomic status, occupational health and job rank on the epidemiology of different psychiatric symptoms in a sample of UK workers

Abstract

There is a considerable gap in epidemiological literature about community mental health showing how psychiatric symptoms are associated with job rank, socioeconomic status, and occupational health. We examine data from 4,596 employees collected in the United Kingdom’s Psychiatric Morbidity among Adults Living in Private Households Survey. There were 939 workers in managerial jobs, 739 in supervisory jobs and 2,918 employees in lower ranking jobs. Of the 4,596 workers, 2,463 had depressive symptoms and 2,133 no depressive symptoms. Job rank, household gross income, social class, personal gross income and socio-economic group were significantly associated with general health, occupational health and depressive and avoidant symptoms. Job rank, occupational and physical health also explained the variance in paranoid and avoidant symptoms among the employees. This study shows that severe psychopathology is related to workers’ job rank.