Workforce psychological distress and absenteeism in Australia: the correlates of industry, age, and gender

The workplace is an important setting for improving population psychological health. This study aimed to identify priority industries and populations in Australia with highest adverse effects of psychological distress. The study included 5834 workers aged 18 to 64 years who participated in the 2020 to 2021 National Health Survey. Logistic regression analyses were used to estimate the prevalence of psychological distress by industry, age group, and gender. Productivity losses were analyzed using negative binomial regression. Increased odds of experiencing distress were found for younger workers 18 to 29 years (odds ratio [OR] = 2. 45, 95% CI [1.75, 3.43]) and female workers (OR = 1.52, 95% CI [1.16, 2.01]). Industry of employment did not impact distress once age and gender were accounted for (P =.956). Being highly/very highly distressed resulted in a mean of 21.56 more distress-related loss days per year (0.78 vs 22.34) compared with low/moderate distress. Targeted and tailored workplace intervention programs for these groups are required to build a healthy and productive future workforce.