Investigation on mental health status and affecting factors of patients after knowing results of occupational disease diagnosis

Objective To investigate the mental health status and possible influencing factors of patients after they knew the results of occupational disease diagnosis.

Methods The patients, who applied for occupational disease diagnosis in a hospital for occupational disease and knew the results of diagnosis for 1-2 months, were surveyed with 12-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12) plus self-designed questionnaire.

Results A total of 129 patients were surveyed and 94 of them were included in this study. Among them 71 cases were diagnosed as occupational disease. The survey showed that the average scores of GHQ-12 was (7.23±4.61), and the percentage of cases with high risk of mental health (total scores ≥ 4) was 74.5%. Logistic regression showed that diagnosis result (yes or no), employers' subjective support, and family economic condition were major affecting factors among those potential influencing factors. It seemed that the patients diagnosed as occupational disease had high risk of mental disorders (8.767 times higher than the non-diagnosed patients, P < 0.01). The good family economic condition and the employers' subjective support were protective factors (the risk odds, 0.144 and 0.740, P < 0.01).

Conclusion The mental health status of those patients were not fine, especially the patients diagnosed as occupational disease. The good family economic condition and the employers' subjective support are the protective factors. We should pay more attention to mental health status of such patients.