Objective
To evaluate the effect of the increase of job strain on the incidence of depression.
Methods
Based on keywords including "job strain, " "job demand, " "job control, " "change, " "depression, " and "mental health" both in English and Chinese, published studies on the topic of the effects of increased job strain on depression were searched from databases such as Pubmed, Web of Science, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), VIP, and WanFang. The information of included literature was extracted by two researchers through reading the topic, abstract, and full text. Stata 12.0 software was used to perform meta analysis.
Results
We identified 1936 studies, and finally included 6 studies with 24335 participants and 3-10 years of follow-up according to our inclusion criteria which included the cohort study on the relationship between increased occupational stress and depression using the questionnaire of work content to evaluate the occupational stress, and excluded duplicate reports, reviews, incomplete data, etc. A higher risk of depression was related to increased job strain (from low job strain at baseline to high job strain in follow-up visit, RR=1.75, 95%CI:1.32-2.23), as well as its sub-dimensions:increased job demand (RR=1.47, 95%CI:1.20-1.79) and decreased job control (RR=1.25, 95%CI:1.09-1.44). No significant publication bias was found after being tested by funnel plot and Egger's test.
Conclusion
Increased job demand, increased job strain, as well as decreased job control may increase the risk of depression.
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