Association of poor psychological well-being with co-exposure to psychosocial factors at work in Korean regular workers.

Background: This study evaluated the association of co-exposure to different psychosocial factors with poor psychological well-being of Korean regular workers.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of data from the fifth Korean Working Conditions Survey, conducted in 2017. Multiple logistic regression was used to determine adjusted odd ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals for poor psychological well-being associated with self-reported psychosocial factors. Poor psychological well-being was measured using the Well-Being Index of the World Health Organization. For each question on psychosocial factors (long weekly working hours, lack of decision latitude, work pressure, lack of autonomy, lack of role clarity, organizational injustice, lack of reward, and lack of support from managers), answers of "always" and "most of the time" were classified as affirmative and answers of"sometimes," "rarely," and "never" were classified as negative.

Results: Poor psychological well-being was significantly associated with most individual work stressors for both sexes (aORs = 1.22-1.83). Furthermore, poor psychological well-being had a positive association with co-exposure to different psychosocial factors (aORs = 1.71-8.08). Co-exposure to an increasing number of psychosocial factors showed greater association with poor psychological well-being.

Conclusion: We found that poor psychological well-being was associated with co-exposure to psychosocial factors in Korean workers in regular employment. Thus, we suggest that employers provide comprehensive measures that will protect workers from simultaneous exposure to adverse psychosocial factors.