Low Control and High Demands at Work as Risk Factors for Suicide

An Australian National Population-Level Case-Control Study

Bibliographic Data

ID19306469
AuthorsAllison Milner (0000-0003-4657-0503, Deakin University, corresponding author), Matthew J Spittal (0000-0002-2841-1536, The University of Melbourne), Jane Pirkis (0000-0002-2538-4472, The University of Melbourne), Jean-François Chastang (0000-0002-1152-581X, Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail), Isabelle Niedhammer (0000-0002-8042-8925, Institut de Recherche en Santé, Environnement et Travail), Anthony D Lamontagne (0000-0002-5811-5906, Deakin University)
Year2017
Volume79
Issue3
Pages358-364
Publication date2017-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychosomatic Medicine (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-3174 • E-ISSN: 1534-7796
PublisherOvid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1097/psy.0000000000000389
PMID27580270
OpenAlexW2511021193
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited33

OBJECTIVE: Previous research suggests that psychosocial job stressors may be plausible risk factors for suicide. This study assessed the relationship between psychosocial job stressors and suicide mortality across the Australian population. METHODS: We developed a job exposure matrix to objectively measure job stressors across the working population. Suicide data came from a nationwide coronial register. Living controls were selected from a nationally representative cohort study. Incidence density sampling was used to ensure that controls were sampled at the time of death of each case. The period of observation for both cases and controls was 2001 to 2012. We used multilevel logistic regression to assess the odds of suicide in relation to 2 psychosocial job stressors (job control and job demands), after matching for age, sex, and year of death/survey and adjusting for socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Across 9,010 cases and 14,007 matched controls, our results suggest that low job control (odds ratio [OR], 1.35; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.26-1.44; p < .001) and high job demands (OR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.26-1.46; p < .001) were associated with increased odds of male suicide after adjusting for socioeconomic status. High demands were associated with lower odds of female suicide (OR, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.72-0.92; p = .002). CONCLUSIONS: It seems that adverse experiences at work are a risk factor for male suicide while not being associated with an elevated risk among females. Future studies on job stressors and suicide are needed, both to further understand the biobehavioral mechanisms explaining the link between job stress and suicide, and to inform targeted prevention initiatives

Environmental health · Injury prevention · Job control · Job strain · Logistic regression · Odds · Odds ratio · Poison control · Population · Psychiatry · Psychosocial · Socioeconomic status · Stressor · Suicide prevention · Work (physics) · Demography · Employment and Welfare Studies · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Psychology · Suicide and Self-Harm Studies · Workplace Health and Well-being · Gerontology

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access