TY - JOUR AU - G. S., Ashwini AU - Ramesh, Naveen AU - C. J., Navya AU - Joy, Jino AU - Oommen, Abel Thomas AU - Singh, Jyoti PY - 2017/03/28 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Probable mental illnesses among tea plantation workers in Anaimalai, Tamil Nadu, South India JF - International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health JA - Int J Community Med Public Health VL - 4 IS - 4 SE - Original Research Articles DO - 10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20171310 UR - https://www.ijcmph.com/index.php/ijcmph/article/view/1239 SP - 982-986 AB - <p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> The prevalence of mental illnesses among industrial workers is found to be 14% - 51%, which is more than that in the general population. Individual’s psychosocial functioning has an impact on the work efficiency. The objective of the study was to assess<span lang="EN-GB"> the prevalence of probable mental illness and its associated factors among workers in selected tea estates in South India</span><span lang="EN-IN">. </span></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> <span lang="EN-GB">A cross sectional study was done in two</span> tea estates in Tamil Nadu from March to May, 2012.  <span lang="EN-GB">The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) 28 was used to screen for probable mental illness. S</span>ociodemographic details, work profile and associated risk factors were also elicited<span lang="EN-IN">. </span></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> <span lang="EN-GB">Among the 400 subjects interviewed, 75.5% were females. The mean age was </span>43.21 (±7.47) years and the mean work experience was 21.38 (±9.31) years. In our study <span lang="EN-GB">12.8% subjects screened positive for probable mental illness and 1%, 1%, 0.2% and 1.5% screened positive in the domains somatic symptoms, anxiety/insomnia, social dysfunction and severe depression respectively. </span>Workers who screened positive for probable mental illness had availed significantly greater duration of<span lang="EN-GB"> leave in the previous year. There was no significant association of mental illness with age, gender, marital status, substance abuse, designation, co-morbidity and stressful life events</span><span lang="EN-IN">. </span></p><p class="abstract"><strong>Conclusions:</strong> There is a need to screen individuals in different occupation for probable mental illness and those screened positive need evaluation by a psychiatrist. There is also a need to explore associated factors in order to improve one’s health and work efficiency<span lang="EN-IN">. </span></p> ER -