O-81 Leadership at the workplace and employees risk of hospital treatment for depression or anxiety – a prospective study of 69, 099 employees. (14th March 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sørensen, Kathrine; Li, Jian; Rugulies, Reiner
• Is Part Of: Occupational and environmental medicine. Volume 80(2023)Supplement 1
• Page Start: A37
• Page End: A37
• Publication Date: 2023-03-14
• Subjects: Medicine, Industrial -- Periodicals; Environmental health -- Periodicals; 616.980305
• DOI: 10.1136/OEM-2023-EPICOH.88
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1351-0711

Abstract

Abstract : Introduction: There is a consensus in the literature that leadership at work can be associated with well-being, productivity and performance of employees. Few studies, however, have investigated whether absence of leadership is associated with risk of clinical mental disorders, such as depression or anxiety. Material and Methods: We linked information on leadership, obtained from the nationwide Work Environment and Health in Denmark survey, with data on hospital treatment for depression and anxiety, obtained from a national register. The survey data was collected in four waves between 2012 and 2018. We included participants that worked, had a leader, had no missing and were never registered with treatment for any mental disorder at a psychiatric hospital before baseline. The study population consisted of 69, 099 participants. We used eight items on leadership behaviours that align with providing resources for the employee, and dichotomized the sum score in absence and presence of leadership, by using the middle-score of the scale as a cutoff. Depression was defined as ICD-10 codes F32 or F33, and anxiety as F41. We used Cox proportional hazards regression, with calendar time as the underlying time scale. Mean follow-up time was 20.6 months. We adjusted for sex, age, educational level, cohabitant, child under age 7, and sampling method. Results: Preliminary results show that 28.6% of the participants reported absence of leadership behaviours. We identified 216 cases of treatment for depression and 87 cases for anxiety. When we compared absence of the leadership behaviours to presence, the hazard ratios were 1.79 [95%-CI, 1.36;2.35] and 1.15 [95%-CI, 0.73;1.82] for depression and anxiety, respectively. Conclusion: Absence of leadership behaviours at work was associated with an increased risk of hospital treatment for depression among employees. We did not find a statistically significant association between leadership behaviours and risk of treatment for anxiety disorder.