Effect of working place infection control practices on workers' psychological distress: A large-scale cohort study during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan

  1. Toyohiko Kodama
  2. Tomohiro Ishimaru
  3. Seiichiro Tateishi
  4. Ayako Hino
  5. Mayumi Tsuji
  6. Akira Ogami
  7. Tomohisa Nagata
  8. Shinya Matsuda
  9. Yoshihisa Fujino

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically transformed the work environment and practices worldwide. Long-term infection control practices may increase the psychological distress of workers, and, conversely, inadequate infection control practices in the working place may increase the fear of infection. This study aimed to determine the relationship between infection control practices in the working place and employee mental state during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.

Methods

This study was conducted in December 2020 and February 2021. The participants had undergone a preliminary survey, which revealed that they were in a good mental state. Their psychological distress was investigated via a second survey, and the factors associated with distress were studied using a logistic model.

Results

The results of the second survey indicated that 15.3% of participants demonstrated psychological distress. This was associated with leave-of-absence instructions, instructions for shortening business hours, and requests to avoid the working place in case of any symptoms.

Conclusion

The study found that while some infection control practices reduce workers' distress, others worsen it. Employers need to consider infection control practices as well as the worsening mental state of employees following a decrease in income caused by such measures. Follow-up studies may be necessary to clarify the long-term effects on workers' mental states.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.933556
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.10.05.21264597: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan (R2-079 and R3-006).
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    We used SPSS ver.
    SPSS
    suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    However, this study has some limitations. First, due to the nature of Internet surveys, selection bias was inevitable. However, data for participants in this study was collected by a diverse selection of sex, occupation, and region to minimize participant bias. Second, because the cohort was relatively short term (3 months), it may not fully reflect the impact of infectious control practices on mental health. For example, refraining from eating together would decrease the risk of infection and reduce the fear of infection, but if the refraining is prolonged, loneliness may be exacerbated by reduced communication. Even if a measure has a positive impact on mental health at a particular time, it may have a different impact in the long term. Third, as the infection control practices are self-reported by the participants, the response may be tainted by subjective evaluation. However, we believe that misinterpretation of the answers is unlikely to occur because the options within the questions describe specific measures. Finally, the implementation status of infection control practices varies greatly depending on enterprise characteristics. Therefore, enterprise characteristics may also be an alternative indicator in terms of disease control practices. In this study, the analysis is adjusted for company size, worker occupation, and educational background. However, the possibility of the effects of unobserved enterprise characteristics cannot be excluded.

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.10.05.21264597v1 on medRxiv