Depressive Symptom and Related Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study of Korean Female Workers Working at Traditional Markets

Won Ju Hwang, Jin Ah Kim and Sally H. Rankin
Additional contact information
Won Ju Hwang: College of Nursing Science, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea
Jin Ah Kim: College of Nursing Science, Kyung Hee University, 26 Kyungheedae-ro, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 02447, Korea
Sally H. Rankin: MacArthur Foundation Chair for Global Health Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California, N411Y, Box 0606, 2 Koret Way, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 12, 1-11

Abstract: Background: Depression is one of the psychiatric diseases with a high prevalence rate, globally, and reportedly more prevalent among women than among men. Especially, women workers working at traditional markets are in depressive conditions without occupational health services. The purpose of this study is to investigate factors having a significant effect on the depressive symptoms of women workers at traditional markets in South Korea. Methods: A cross-sectional study was used and subjects for the present study were 500 female workers in three selected representative traditional marketplaces in South Korea. Results: The results of hierarchical regression analysis indicated that increased BMI (? = 0.297, p = 0.017), poor nutritional status (? = 0.596, p < 0.001), street vendor status (? = 2.589, p = 0.001), job stress (? = 0.491, p < 0.001), lower back pain (? = 0.377, p = 0.011), lower self-efficacy (? = ?0.368, p = 0.002) and diminished family function (? = ?0.633, p = 0.001) affected workers’ depressive symptoms. The explanatory power of these variables was 38.5%. Conclusions: Based on these results, future research should focus on incorporating theses significant factors into effective interventions designed to decrease depressive symptoms in this population. Moreover, this study will increase interest in occupational health nursing, particularly in relation to vulnerable social groups, and expand the scope of practice in the field.

Keywords: women workers; job stress; depression; marketplace (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/12/1465/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/14/12/1465/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:14:y:2017:i:12:p:1465-:d:120573

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().