How prevalent is psychological distress among workers?

A recent report produced by Monash University has provided a snapshot of the health of the Australian workforce.

The report — ‘Workforce Health in Australia’, produced by the Healthy Working Lives Research Group at Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine — revealed that 39% of workers reported pain interfering with their work, while 40% reported psychological distress in 2020–21. Poor mental health led to 42 million days of lost work per annum in 2020–22.

“This national snapshot provides a benchmark to enable future tracking and monitoring of trends in worker health and wellbeing, highlighting the mental and physical health of Australian workers, the disability status of workers, fatalities, and employees’ overall health at work,” said Professor Alex Collie.

Tracking trends via data

In order to produce the report, the Monash team reviewed existing available datasets and identified seven nationally representative surveys and large national datasets that captured information on the health and wellbeing of employed Australians aged at least 15 years or older.

The seven different national datasets included: National Health Survey, National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Study, Work-related Injuries Survey, National Return to Work Survey, National Data Set of Workers Compensation-based Statistics, and Work-related Traumatic Injury Fatalities Australia 2021.

“We reviewed the data items within each of the sources, and selected items that measured worker health and wellbeing and its determinants,” Collie said. “Determinants are the things that influence our health and wellbeing, such as diet and exercise and access to health care.

“Healthy workers are more productive at work, live longer, report a better quality of life and use fewer community resources than unhealthy workers. We also know that being sick and unable to work and working while you’re sick, has enormous costs to individuals and society.

“Workplaces have changed a lot in recent years. How and what people do for work has also changed. For example, we’ve seen a rise in teleworking, and a growth in the gig economy. These changes have introduced new risks to worker health, and they occur in a rapidly evolving Australian society, in which both the health of citizens and the determinants of health are also changing.

“Unemployment is at an all-time low, and our national productivity has stalled. Maximising workforce health is a really important opportunity to boost productivity. This report describes a way of measuring workforce health, so that we can identify the main opportunities for improvement.”

What were the key findings of the Health of Australia’s workforce report?

• 63% of workers rate their overall health as very good or excellent
• 39% of Australian workers reported that pain interfered with normal work
• 22% of Australian workers reported a mental health disorder with symptoms in the past 12 months
• 18% of Australian workers reported high or very high levels of distress in 2020–21 compared to 8% in 2014–15
• 12% of Australian workers reported a disability or long-term health condition affecting their employment
• 43% of Australian workers reported high job demands
   

The data also shows some improvements in the determinants of health, including reductions in job insecurity and smoking, and a rise in physical activity.

“The report represents a baseline that can be used to monitor workforce health over time. We need a better coordinated national approach to monitoring worker health, to identify opportunities for improvement and to track changes in response to new policies or programs,” Collie said.

Image credit: iStock.com/coffeekai. Stock image used is for illustrative purposes only.