Abstract
Purpose
There is limited empirical evidence regarding mental health in workplace settings in Africa. Gold mining is a major industry in Ghana, and this study investigated mental health-related symptoms and the factors contributing to such symptoms among employees in the Ghanaian.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey design study was used to collect data from employees working in the mining industry across five gold mines in Ghana. All mining employees were invited to participate in the survey. Sociodemographic and work characteristic data (including job content) was collected alongside measures of recent mental health-related symptoms (Kessler-10). Questionnaires were administered in English. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models.
Results
Of 1165 participants (response rate: 78%), 87% were male and 13% were female. The majority of the participants were in the 25–34 age category. Psychological distress was categorized as low (62.6%), moderate (24.3%), high (10.0%) and very high (3.2%). Shift type (working 12 h or more), physical working conditions and financial factors were significantly associated with psychological distress. Job resources and job demands was not significantly associated with levels of psychological distress.
Conclusion
This is the first study to explore mental health in the Ghanaian gold mining industry. The findings identify workplace factors associated with psychological distress in the mining industry in Ghana and support the importance of promoting mental health as part of workplace health and safety strategy to improve mental health across the mining population.
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Data availability
For researchers who meet the criteria for access to confidential data, the data are available through the University of Newcastle Human research ethics committee giving the reference number (Approval number H-2018-0194). Requests for data access may be sent to human-ethics@newcastle.edu.au.
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The authors gratefully acknowledge the statistical support of CReDITSS during the result analysis.
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WAD is the main author and contributed to all aspects of study design, data acquisition, data analysis and interpretation, and preparation of the manuscript. JR, BJ AND CJ lead study conception and design. KAT provided assistance with data collation. WAD, JR, BK, KAT and CJ provided strategic guidance throughout the project, and assisted with the preparation of manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Asare-Doku, W., Rich, J.L., Kelly, B. et al. Mental health and mining: the Ghanaian gold mining story. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 94, 1353–1362 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-021-01726-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-021-01726-7