Article Text
Abstract
Introduction Bullying has been described as a risk factor for mental disorders, however there is a lack of evidence on this subject in low- and middle-income countries. Therefore we aimed to evaluate the association between workplace bullying and common mental disorders in a sample of Judiciary Brazilian civil servants.
Methods Cross-sectional study with a sample of 1667 workers from the Brazilian Federal Judiciary in southern Brazil. The Negative Acts Questionnaire (NAQ-r) was used to measure bullying at work and the Self Report Questionnaire (SRQ-20) was used to evaluate Common Mental Disorders (CMD). Poisson regression was used to test associations of interest, controlling for confounders.
Results The overall prevalence of CMD was 33.5%. The prevalence of workplace bullying was 17.7%. In the crude analysis, exposure to bullying (at least one negative act in a weekly basis in the last six months) was associated with a 2.07-fold (CI 1.81–2.36, p<0.001) higher prevalence of CMD. After controlling for sociodemographic and occupational confounders, workers exposed to bullying presented a 1.51-fold (CI 1.31–1.73, p<0.001) higher prevalence of CMD.
Discussion Judiciary Brazilian civil servants may be at a high risk of being exposed to bullying and having common mental disorders. Our findings corroborate the results of studies from high-income countries, where bullying is considered an important occupational determinant of mental health. Prevention policies to eliminate bullying in organizations are urgent, what may help to decrease the prevalence of mental disorders among workers.