Irizar, P, Gage, SH, Fallon, V and Goodwin, L (2022) A latent class analysis of health risk behaviours in the UK Police Service and their associations with mental health and job strain. BMC Psychiatry, 22 (1).

Preview

Text s12888-022-04054-3.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: Health risk behaviours (e.g., harmful drinking and smoking) often cluster together and can be associated with poor mental health and stress. This study examined how health risk behaviours cluster together in individuals in a high stress occupation (UK Police Service), and the associations with mental health and job strain. Methods: Data was obtained from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study (25,234 male and 14,989 female police employees), which included measures of health risk behaviours (alcohol use, diet, smoking status, physical activity), poor mental health (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), and job strain (low, high, active, passive). Classes of health risk behaviours were identified using Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and the associations with mental health and job strain were analysed through multinomial logistic regressions. Results: For men and women, a 5-class solution was the best fit. Men and women with depression, anxiety, and/or PTSD (analysed as separate variables) had at least double the odds of being assigned to the “high health risk behaviours” class, compared to those with no mental health problem. Compared to those reporting low strain, men and women reporting high strain had increased odds of being assigned to the “low risk drinkers with other health risk behaviours” classes. Conclusions: These finding highlight the importance of holistic interventions which target co-occurring health risk behaviours, to prevent more adverse physical health consequences. Police employees with poor mental health are more likely to engage in multiple health risk behaviours, which suggests they may need additional support. However, as the data was cross-sectional, the temporal associations between the classes and mental health or job strain could not be determined.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Humans; Cross-Sectional Studies; Mental Health; Police; Female; Male; United Kingdom; Health Risk Behaviors; Latent Class Analysis; Anxiety; Depression; Job strain; Latent class analysis; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health Risk Behaviors; Humans; Latent Class Analysis; Male; Mental Health; Police; United Kingdom; 5203 Clinical and Health Psychology; 4206 Public Health; 42 Health Sciences; 52 Psychology; Anxiety Disorders; Behavioral and Social Science; Depression; Mental Health; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); Brain Disorders; Mental Illness; Prevention; 2.3 Psychological, social and economic factors; 3.1 Primary prevention interventions to modify behaviours or promote wellbeing; 2.2 Factors relating to the physical environment; Mental health; 3 Good Health and Well Being; Cross-Sectional Studies; Female; Health Risk Behaviors; Humans; Latent Class Analysis; Male; Mental Health; Police; United Kingdom; 1103 Clinical Sciences; 1117 Public Health and Health Services; 1701 Psychology; Psychiatry; 3202 Clinical sciences; 4202 Epidemiology; 5203 Clinical and health psychology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
Divisions:	Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher:	BioMed Central
SWORD Depositor:	A Symplectic
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2025 10:09
Last Modified:	19 Feb 2025 10:15
DOI or ID number:	10.1186/s12888-022-04054-3
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/25669

View Item