The Relationship Between Work-Related Stress and Depression: A Scoping Review

Jean-Baptist du Prel; Adrijana Koscec Bjelajac; Zrinka Franić; Lorena Henftling; Hana Brborović; Eva Schernhammer; Damien M McElvenny; Eda Merisalu; Nurka Pranjic; Irina Guseva Canu; Lode Godderis

doi:10.3389/phrs.2024.1606968

The Relationship Between Work-Related Stress and Depression: A Scoping Review

Public Health Rev. 2024 May 1:45:1606968. doi: 10.3389/phrs.2024.1606968. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Occupational Health Science, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany.
² Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health, Zagreb, Croatia.
³ University of Zagreb, School of Medicine, Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁵ Research Group, Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.
⁶ Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.
⁷ Estonian University of Life Sciences, Tartu, Estonia.
⁸ Department of Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tuzla, Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁹ Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, Unisanté, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of Primary Care and Public Health, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
¹¹ IDEWE, External Service for Prevention and Protection at Work, Heverlee, Belgium.

Abstract

Objectives: Work-related stress is highly prevalent. Recent systematic reviews concluded on a significant association between common work-related stress measures and depression. Our scoping review aims to explore whether work-related psychosocial stress is generally associated with depression or depressiveness, the extent and methodology of the primary research undertaken on this topic and to elucidate inconsistencies or gaps in knowledge.

Methods: We searched for literature in Pubmed, PsycInfo and Web of Science including full reports in seven languages published between 1999 and 2022 and applied the PRISMA statement for scoping reviews criteria.

Results: Of 463 primarily identified articles, 125 were retained after abstract and full-text screening. The majority report significant associations between work-related stress and depression. Cross-sectional studies are most prevalent. Sufficient evidence exists only for job strain and effort-reward imbalance. Most studies are from Asia, North America and Europe. The health sector is the most studied. Several research gaps such as the lack of interventional studies were identified.

Conclusion: The consistency of most studies on the significant association between work-related stress and depression is remarkable. More studies are needed to improve evidence and to close research gaps.

Keywords: depressive symptoms; effort-reward imbalance; job strain; psychosocial work stress; work-related depression.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The work of AB and ZF was partly funded by the European Union—Next-Generation EU (Program Contract of 8 December 2023, Class: 643-02/23-01/00016, Reg. no. 533-03-23-0006). All authors acknowledge support from the Open Access Publication Fund of the University of Wuppertal. The authors did not receive any further funding by a third party for this publication. The responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors.