Men who perceive their jobs as low in decision latitude also risk depression, say the Institut de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) team.

Dr Sabrina Paterniti and colleagues sought to determine whether certain personality traits could explain the association between stressful job conditions and depressive symptoms.

They studied 7,729 men and 2,790 women working at the French National Electricity and Gas Company who had been enrolled in an ongoing longitudinal study about the occupational risk factors of impaired physical and mental health.

Follow-up data, by means of yearly self-administered psychosocial questionnaires, were available for the previous three years.

In both men and women, psychosocial factors at work, such as high demands and low support, were associated with increased scores on the Centre for Epidemiological Studies – Depression (CES-D) scale.

Men with high decision latitude – meaning a high degree of control over their work – scored lower on the CES-D than men with low decision latitude.

Confounding variables such as marital status and personality traits did not influence these associations. Personality traits themselves were independent depression risk factors.

In particular, self-esteem and total hostility were independent predictors of an increase of depressive symptoms and were associated with high job demands, low decision latitude and low social support at work.

Dr Paterniti and colleagues said it appeared that individuals who suffer from low self-esteem and/or high hostility also perceive high job-strain conditions.

“The same individuals do have personality and work factors that increase the risk for developing depressive symptoms,” they said.

However, they add that causal link between psychosocial factors at work and personality traits may not be defined on the basis of their data.

They believe that interventions designed to reduce perceived excessive job demands and increase the degree of perceived latitude and support could slow the development of depression.

Reference: Paterniti et al, British Journal of Psychiatry 2002;181:111-117

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