Korean J Occup Environ Med.  2009 Dec;21(4):314-323.

Depressive Symptoms of Workplace Violence Exposed Subjects in Korea

• Byun CB
• Youn KW
• Jung-Choi
• Cho Y
• Paek D

Abstract

OBJECTIVES
This study was conducted to evaluate the association between workplace violence and depression
METHODS
In total, 2236 employees who were providing services at hotels, casinos and amusement halls were used in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to assess exposures to violence, which was classified into physical violence, verbal violence, sexual harassment and bullying together with jobs and sociodemographic factors. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Korean Beck depression inventory-II (BDI-II). Those with total BDI-II score over 22 points were defined as people with depression.
RESULTS
Prevalence of depression among subjects exposed to any violence was higher than those who were not exposed to violence. After adjusting covariates, the odds ratio of depression was 2.47 (95% CI;1.13~5.39) for sexually harassed male subjects (n=72, 4.90%), 3.22 (95% CI; 1.51~6.87) for bullied male subjects (n=570, 38.83%), and 2.57 (95% CI; 1.52~4.32) for bullied female subjects (n=447, 58.20%).
CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study suggest that depression can be an important psychological issue to those exposed to workplace violence in Korea. First of all, acknowledgement of the problem should be made in the workplace. Exalting public awareness and transforming work ethics and culture is cardinal to making this a social rather than an individual problem.

Keyword

Workplace violence; Bullying; Depression

MeSH Terms

Bullying
Depression
Female
Humans
Korea
Male
Odds Ratio
Prevalence
Questionnaires
Sex Offenses
Violence