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Long Working Hours, Precarious Employment and Anxiety Symptoms Among Working Chinese Population in Hong Kong

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Abstract

This study aimed to examine the association between working hours and anxiety of a working population in Hong Kong. We used a cross sectional data from a population-based household survey of Hong Kong Chinese adults. Key measures included employment status, skill level, working hours, length of stay at current job and anxiety level. Symptoms of anxiety were assessed using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). The data were analysed using logistic regression. Chinese adults who had long working hours (≥ 72 h per week) had higher odds of developing symptoms of anxiety than those who worked for ≤ 36 h per week (odds ratio [OR] 5.94, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.82‒19.41). Compared with short period (< 1 year), long period of stay at current job (≥ 5 years) was found as a protective factor from anxiety (OR 0.38, 95% CI: 0.20‒0.73). We found that a working period of 72 h per week was a significant threshold to cause anxiety to workers. Stable job arrangement was a protective factor to workers from anxiety. Implementation of labour market regulations, such as standard working hour policy and stable job arrangement, was also significant to mitigate risk of anxiety for working people in Hong Kong.

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Funding

The work was supported by a grant from the Central Policy Unit of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 4003-SPPR-11).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences (Social Work), City University of Hong Kong, Tat Chee Avenue, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Siu Ming CHAN

  2. Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China

    Tat Chor AU-YEUNG

  3. Department of Social Work, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Hung WONG

  4. Institute of Health Equity, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Roger Yat-Nork CHUNG

  5. School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Gary Ka-Ki CHUNG

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  1. Siu Ming CHAN
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  2. Tat Chor AU-YEUNG
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  3. Hung WONG
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  4. Roger Yat-Nork CHUNG
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  5. Gary Ka-Ki CHUNG
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Contributions

Siu Ming Chan was responsible for literature search, data analysis, data interpretation and writing of this paper. Tat Chor Au-Yeung was responsible for literature search and and writing of this paper. Hung Wong and Roger Chung were responsible for the overall research design, data collection of the data set. Gary Chung was responsible for data interpretation and writing of this paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Siu Ming CHAN.

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Ethical Approval

This study was approved by the Survey and Behavioral Research Ethics Committee of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Jun 2012.

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CHAN, S., AU-YEUNG, T., WONG, H. et al. Long Working Hours, Precarious Employment and Anxiety Symptoms Among Working Chinese Population in Hong Kong. Psychiatr Q 92, 1745–1757 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-021-09938-3

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