Mohammad Sobhan Sheikh Andalibi*
Introduction: Depression and anxiety are very prevalent mental disorders, which can have a major impact on the well-being of individual and society. This study assesses the depression and anxiety scores of employees of Gas Processing Company (SGPC) working further away from home comparing these with a matched group to investigate a possible association between work conditions and social support and depression and anxiety.
Methods and materials: Six hundred and seventy employees of Shahid Hasheminejad SGPC, located in Sarakhs, Iran and 681 male employees of any governmental and non-governmental organizations from Mashhad, Iran matched to the first group by age, sex, and working status were recruited. Demographic, socioeconomic, depression and anxiety data were gathered using an interviewer-administered questionnaire. Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Beck’s depression inventory II (BDI-II) were used to assess anxiety and depression, respectively. SPSS software for WindowsTM (version 16, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) was used for statistical analysis.
Results: Based on the results of the questionnaire, moderate and severe depression scores were found in 10% of employees of the SGPC and 13% of matched people from Mashhad. 12% of employees of the SGPC had high anxiety scores compared with14% of matched people from Mashhad. There was a significant difference between matched people from Mashhad and employees of the SGPC in mean depression (p<0.001) and anxiety scores (p<0.001).
Conclusions: The study found that employees in Mashhad group had higher anxiety and depression scores compare with SGPC workers. Further studies will help to understand the reason that this result happened.
