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The association between eating disorders and mental health among workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

I. Sellami*
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, Hedi Chaker hospital, university of Sfax
A. Abbes
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, University of Sfax
A. Hrairi
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, University of Sfax
M. A. Ghrab
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, University of Sfax
A. Meska
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
M. Tah
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
M. L. Masmoudi
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, Hedi Chaker hospital, university of Sfax
K. Jmal Hammami
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, Hedi Chaker hospital, university of Sfax
M. Hajjaji
Affiliation:
occupational medecine, Hedi Chaker hospital, university of Sfax
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Eating disorders are serious medical conditions labelled by severe disturbances to one’s eating behaviours. These disorders can affect employees’ physical and mental health.

Objectives

This study aimed to evaluate the association between eating disorders and workers’ mental health.

Methods

The study was conducted among a group of workers from an electricity society. Data were gathered between January-June 2022 using a self-administered questionnaire including socio-professional characteristics, eating disorders evaluation, and mental health assessment using the Hospital anxiety and depression scale (HADS).

Results

Our study included 92 workers. Their mean age was 43.8 ± 11.7 years and 73 were male (79.3%). The average job tenure was 17.6 ± 11.2 years. Thirty-eight participants (41.3%) had eating disorders. With the reference to HADS, 47 (51.1%) and 16 (17.4%) participants presented symptoms of anxiety and depression, respectively. Regarding the patients’ anxiety levels, it was found that 82.6%, 12%, and 5.4% appeared to have mild, moderate, and severe anxiety, respectively. As for the depression levels of patients, 45 were mildly depressed (48.9%), 31 were moderately depressed (33.7%), and 16 were severely depressed (17.4%). Participants with eating disorders had higher scores of anxiety and depression p=0.001 and p=0.003 respectively.

Conclusions

According to our study, eating disorders had a significant association with the mental health of workers. Therefore, it is important to provide training for workers to have a healthy balanced diet to guarantee good mental health.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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