Psychological health and occupational stress among occupation populations in Xinjiang

Objective To explore statuses of mental health and occupational stress and their influencing factors among occupational populations in Karamay municipality of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region(Xinjiang).Methods By using multi-stage cluster random sampling,2 200 employees aged over 18 years(including workers,teachers,military men,civil servants,and medical staff)were selected from Karamay municipality and a questionnaire survey was conducted among the employees with General Health Questionnaire-20(GHQ-20)and Symptom Checklist-90(SCL-90).Results Compared with those of Chinese norm,the employees showed significantly higher SCL-90 scores of obsessive compulsive(1.69±0.58)and phobia(1.36±0.64)but lower scores of somatization(1.33±0.55),interpersonal sensitivity(1.44±0.46),depression(1.42±0.66),and psychoticism(1.23±0.48)(all P <0.001).There were significant differences in SCL-90 total score and all domain scores of among the SCL-90 positive employees with different occupations(all P <0.001).For all the employees,the positive rate of GHQ-20 was 27.5%and the positive rate of SCL-90 was 25.0%and there were significant differences in the two rates among the employees with different occupations(P <0.05),with a high consistency in the screening results of the two scales.Significant difference was observed between the employees with positive and negative result of GHQ-20.Conclusion The occupational stress is relatively serious and the status of mental health is relatively poor among occupational populations in Xinjiang;the results of the survey indicate that effective interventions are needed among the populations.