LAUSR

Depression is the second leading cause of disability worldwide. Healthcare workers report a higher prevalence of depressive symptoms than the general population. Emotional labor has contributed to poor health and work outcomes. However, the mechanism for the potential association between emotional labor and depressive symptoms has not been well studied. In 2018, healthcare workers (n=1,060) from five public sector facilities in the northeast U.S. participated in this cross-sectional survey. The survey included questions on participants’ surface-acting emotional labor (masking one’s feelings at work), depressive symptoms, sleep duration and disturbances, and socio-demographics. Nearly a quarter (21.7%) of the participants reported depressive symptoms, over a half (53.6%) reported short sleep duration (≤6 hours per day), and nearly one third (32.2%) reported sleep disturbances. There was a significant association between emotional labor and depressive symptoms (β=0.82, p<0.001) among these workers. Sleep disturbances, not short sleep duration, partially mediated this association by 17%. Both sleep disturbances and short sleep duration did not modify this association. Depressive symptoms were prevalent among healthcare workers and were associated with emotional masking. Sleep disturbances play an important intermediate role in translating emotional labor to depressive symptoms in these workers. Effective workplace programs are needed to reduce healthcare workers’ emotional labor in order to improve their mental health. Sleep promotion should be emphasized to mitigate the negative effect of emotional labor and promote healthcare workers’ mental wellbeing. The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace is supported by Grant Number 1 U19 OH008857 from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (CDC). This work is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of NIOSH. We are grateful to the CPH-NEW Research Team working together to collect the questionnaire data.