Epidemiology & Public Health

Biography

Biography: Jiazhi Zeng

Abstract

China is facing the unprecedented challenges of rapidly increasing rural-to-urban migrant workers. Several studies revealed that depression was associated with unemployment, bad living conditions, discrimination and social inequity among migrants. However, few studies have examined the association between working hours and depression among them. This study aims to explore whether overtime work is associated with depression among female migrant workers in Guangzhou, China. This was a cross-sectional survey of 1003 rural-to-urban female migrant workers in Guangzhou, China in 2013. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. Depression was assessed by the 20-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) Scale. Multiple logistic regression model was adopted to assess the association between overtime work and depression. 280 (28.0%) participants had depressive symptoms (CES-D scores ≥16 points). Female migrant workers working 45~65h/week had significantly lower risk of depression compared to those working <45h/week (OR = 0.58, 95%CI 0.39-0.87), and the OR for depression was 2.10 (95%CI 1.25-3.18) times higher for those working >65h/week than for those working <45h/week, when adjusted for socio-demographic characteristics, migrant characteristics, work-related characteristics and lifestyle factors. Heavy overtime work is associated with an increased risk of depression, meanwhile, those reported working less than 45h/week, who are likely to have job uncertainty and low income, are at higher risk of depression compared with those working moderate overtime. These findings are interesting from a health promotion perspective, female migrant workers working <45h and >65h/week predispose to depression and need preventive action against depression.