Psychiatric morbidity in industrial workers of South India

Background: The literature on psychiatric morbidity in industrial workers is scarce in India. This information will go a long way in planning preventive and promotive measures in industrial population thereby safeguarding their health. Aim: This cross sectional was undertaken in the year 2001 in workers of a largest iron ore processing unit of India to study the prevalence of psychiatric morbidity and the associated risk factors. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted in an Iron Ore processing company located in Chickamagalore District of Karnataka in the year 2001 using Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Plus and Occupational Stress Index. The total industrial work force was 1537 employees. A total of 252 (16.4%) formed the sample for the study of whom 235 (93.3%) were responders and 17 (6.7%) were non-responders. Following a detailed interview with the selected industrial workers, diagnosis was made based on International Classification of Diseases-10, Classification of Mental and Behavioural Disorders: Diagnostic Criteria for Research. Results: Majority of the study sample consists of males (95.7%), Hindus (85.5%), married persons (96.2%), and originally from the state in which industry is located, i.e., Karnataka (96.2%). Education wise majority are ITI graduates (29%), 20% studied up to high school, and 12.3% hold diploma in engineering. 11% of the sample had hypertension, 8.1% had diabetes mellitus and 3.0% had both hypertension and diabetes. 69.4% did not had any physical problem. Prevalence rate for lifetime psychiatric disorder in the study sample was 56.2% (95% confidence interval = 49.8-62.6) using MINI plus. Prevalence rate for current psychiatric disorder in the study sample is 36.2% (95% confidence interval = 30.1-42). Nicotine dependence is the major diagnosis (27.7%) followed by alcohol abuse (12.3%). 7.25% of the population fulfilled criteria for alcohol dependence syndrome. There were 137 subjects reporting mild occupational stress and 48 reporting moderate to severe occupational stress. Persons with non-technical educational status had significantly higher proportions of mild stress and less of moderate to severe stress as compared to other groups. Stress levels seemed to be uniformly distributed amongst those with or without physical and psychiatric disorder. Conclusion: A considerable proportion of industrial workers had psychiatric morbidity having many associated risk factors.