IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v14y2017i9p1085-d112493.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Association between Emotional Symptoms and Job Demands in an Asian Electronics Factory

Author

Listed:
  • Wei-Lieh Huang

    (Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital Yun-Lin Branch, Yunlin County 640, Taiwan)

  • Yue Leon Guo

    (National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli County 350, Taiwan
    Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan
    Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan)

  • Pau-Chung Chen

    (Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan
    Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan)

  • Jui Wang

    (Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei 100, Taiwan)

  • Po-Ching Chu

    (Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei 100, Taiwan
    Department of Environmental and Occupational Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsin-Chu Branch, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan)

Abstract

Various work-related issues including mental health have been described for the electronic industry. Although East Asian countries play important roles in the electronics industry, the association between job demands and emotional symptoms has been rarely examined. The present study recruited 603 workers from either office or clean room environments in an electronics factory in Taiwan. Their personal factors, work-related factors, and emotional symptoms were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. The symptoms of depression and hostility were reported in 24.88% and 24.38% of the subjects, respectively, while 14.93% reported both. A multivariate analysis showed that, overall, women workers were more likely to have emotional symptoms than male workers (odds ration (OR) = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.02–2.18). Among clean room workers, working under high pressure (OR = 1.84, 95% CI = 1.05–3.21), conflicting demands (OR = 2.15, 95% CI = 1.30–3.57), and social isolation at work (OR = 2.99, 95% CI = 1.23–7.30) were associated with emotional symptoms. The findings suggest that in the Asian electronics industry, for women, working under high pressure, conflicting demands, and social isolation at work are risk factors for emotional symptoms, especially for clean room workers. Further large-scale, longitudinal studies are necessary to confirm and prevent the mental health problems in this fast-evolving, highly competitive industry.

Suggested Citation

  • Wei-Lieh Huang & Yue Leon Guo & Pau-Chung Chen & Jui Wang & Po-Ching Chu, 2017. "Association between Emotional Symptoms and Job Demands in an Asian Electronics Factory," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-11, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:9:p:1085-:d:112493
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/9/1085/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/9/1085/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:9:p:1085-:d:112493. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.