Work-related stress and associated factors among employees of Hawassa industrial park, southern Ethiopia: an institutional based cross-sectional study

(2022) 22:387 Sime et al. BMC Psychiatry https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-04032-9 Open Access RESEARCH Work‑related stress and associated factors among employees of Hawassa industrial park, southern Ethiopia: an institutional based cross‑sectional study Yohanes Sime1*, Hailemariam Hailesilassie2 and Arefayne Alenko2 Abstract Background: Work-related stress (WRS) is becoming an alarmingly growing public health concern worldwide. Due to globalization and changes in working conditions, people in low-income countries face growing work-relates stress. However, despite high prevalence globally, work-related stress among industrial park workers is not well studied in Ethiopia.Thus; the aim of this study was to assess work-related stress and associated factors among employees of Hawassa industrial park, southern Ethiopia. Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was employed among 419 employees of Hawassa industrial park using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire. Study participants were selected using simple random sampling technique. Data was collected by face-to-face interview. A workplace stress scale (WPSS) was used to assess work-related stress. The collected data were coded and entered into EPI data 4.6 and exported to SPSS version 26 for analysis. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify associated factors. The statistical significance was considered at P-value < 0.05. Result: The Overall prevalence of work-related stress was 47.5, 95% CI (43.2, 52.1). Variables such as temporary employment [AOR = 0.41, 95% CI (0.26–0.64)], poor working condition [AOR = 2.12, 95% CI (1.32–3.43)], work experience less than two and half years [AOR = 3.11, 95% CI (1.95–4.96)], poor learning opportunity [AOR = 1.82, 95% CI (1.10–2.30)], poor organizational support [AOR = 1.70, 95% CI (1.10–2.62)], current use of khat [AOR = 2.52, 95% CI (1.28–4.99)] and current use of alcohol [AOR = 2.27, 95% CI (1.44–3.58)] were significantly associated with work-related stress. Conclusion and recommendation: The study found high prevalence of work-related stress among employees of Hawassa industrial park. Temporary employment, poor working conditions, work experience < 21/2 years, poor learning opportunities, poor organizational support, current khat use, and current use of alcohol were significantly associated with work-related stress. Our study finding is recommending enhancing stress management skills and primary prevention on identified risk factors to industry employees. Keywords: Work-related stress, Employee, Industrial park, Ethiopia *Correspondence: 1 Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine and Health Science, Dilla University, Dilla, Ethiopia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Introduction Stress is a sensation of mental pressure and tension in psychological sciences. Low-stress levels may be desirable, useful, and even healthy to improve bio-psychosocial © The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativeco mmons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. Sime et al. BMC Psychiatry (2022) 22:387 health and improve performance in its positive form. However, high stress can lead to biological, psychological, and social issues and even serious damage to people [1]. A number of people who have stress caused or made themselves worse through work increases at an alarming rate and in developing countries, it becomes an issue of public health concern [2]. Work-related stress (WRS) is a harmful physical and/or emotional response when the needs of a job do not correspond with the employee’s abilities, resources, or needs [3]. Work-related stress occurs if the requirements of the job differ from the individual worker’s resources and abilities to meet these requirements. Next to musculoskeletal disorders, WRS is the second most reported work-related health problem [2]. WRS causes various health concerns and impropriety. The most common health concerns include back pain, muscle aches, headache, stomach ache, bloated stomach, constipation, high blood pressure, heart problems, depression, anxiety, fatigue, annoyance, asthma [4]. In addition, the quality and productivity of work decrease with these negative developments, and disease and absence increase [5]. Globally, work-related stress is a major challenge to workers and also organizations. It affects the mental and physical health of an individual and the effectiveness of an organization [6]. In recent decades, globalization and technological progress have changed the world of work, introducing new forms of work organization, working relations, and employment patterns and contributing to the enhancement of WRS [7]. Industrial park workers are an important health prevention population, including the prevention of mental health problems especially stress which is related to their work [8]. The magnitude of recorded work-related stress has increased over the years, and the losses for organizations and businesses have escalated afterward too. It was found that up to 40% of the cost of losing the gross domestic product per annum from 0.5 to 3.5%, could be attributed to WRS [9]. The prevalence of work-related stress among employees of manufacturing sectors is high even though it varies across countries. It has been found to be 27.5% in Thailand [10], 23.9 in China [11], 25% in India [12], 21.3% in Iran [13], 28% in the Democratic Republic of Congo [14], and 45.2% in Ethiopia among employees in textile factory [15]. Prior findings from the research have shown that the risk, severity, and impact of stress associated with the work have differed, depending on cultural orientation, work nature, and working environment. Some of the factors that contributed to WRS among employees were the shift work, the use of a psychoactive substance, social support, over 50 h of work per week, long daily working Page 2 of 10 hours, high work demands, time pressure, and too many administrative tasks socio- (...truncated)