Belgians suffer disproportionately from work-related depression compared to other EU citizens, a recent study has found.
According to a report by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI), Belgians lost a total of 33,032 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) due to depression brought on at least in part by work in 2015. (One DALY corresponds to one year of full health.)
At the time the study's data was gathered, Belgians represented approximately 2.2% of the EU population. Yet the ETUI's analysis implies that Belgium accounted for 5% of all 661,012 DALYs lost in the EU for similar reasons that year. This means, in effect, that Belgians suffered more than twice as much from job-induced depression than the average European.
The study also found that the mental health of women in Belgium was especially negatively affected by work. In particular, while across the EU men lost more DALYs than women (355,665 compared to 305,347), in Belgium the numbers were reversed, with men losing 13,966 DALYs and women 19,066.
In Belgium, job strain was a causal factor in 13.47% of all cases of depression, while workplace bullying and job insecurity were at least partly responsible for 13.12% and 8.26% of cases respectively.
These numbers were broadly reflective of the EU as a whole, although workplace bullying was slightly more common in Belgium than in the rest of Europe (where it accounted for only 9% of all cases of work-induced depression).
Related News
- 'Violence, depression and suicide': Belgium's reception crisis far from over
- How good is life in Flanders? Residents rate their lives 7.3 out of 10
Worryingly, the study's authors suggested that they may have underestimated the negative impact of work on Europeans' mental health, as their analysis failed to include several other kinds of workplace harassment.
"Some psychosocial work factors including specific exposures may be lacking, for instance organisational injustice or violence at work," the study noted.
"Other occupational exposures not related to psychosocial work factors, such as shift or night work, were not studied. Our results thus provide conservative estimates of the burden of diseases attributable to psychosocial work factors, since we studied a limited set of exposures and outcomes."
'Absolutely not surprised'
Speaking to Le Soir, medical consultant and visiting professor at Brussels' ULB university Véronique Dumonceau said that she was "absolutely not surprised" by the results.
"We are in a society that is moving at full speed and that forgets what is essential, namely the human element," she said. "We have to work faster and faster. We are asked at a moment's notice to replace a colleague. The [workplace] hierarchy does not always collaborate, because it is itself subjected to stress."
Dumonceau further noted that there are many things that the Belgian government could do to improve the mental health of the country's working-age population, including increasing government support for mental health care clinics and encouraging bosses to "listen, empathise and help workers reduce their feelings of guilt."
She also praised a recent initiative by Public Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke to pay companies which enabled workers experiencing burnout or depression to return to work.
However, Dumonceau emphasised that pressuring Belgian employers to treat their workers better should be the main goal.
"There are really toxic employers, and we must be able to identify them," she said. "I have met workers who were harassed by their superiors. People are not machines, they are humans. It is necessary to hire competent people responsible for well-being at work within companies. We may be helping the return to work, but if we do not have inclusive employers, it will not work."
