Europe UK (Commonwealth Union) – The impact of the pandemic lockdowns continues to emerge with a new study demonstrating that mental health problems like depression being most common in the hospitality and real estate sectors, however before the COVID-19 pandemic, they were on the rise across the board.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge along with the University College London saw key gender disparities of common mental health issues against females from more than half of the 20 industries evaluated, with the least gap from the transport and storage industry and the widest gap seen in the arts, entertainment and recreation industry.
The researchers indicated that in the UK, approximately 1 in 7 individuals in the workplace face mental health issues, along with women having twice the chance to have mental health problems as men. Over half of the entire sickness absence days are associated with mental health conditions. Estimates show that economic losses resulting from mental health issues account for roughly 4.1 percent of the UK GDP, and improved mental health support in workplaces can be a saving for UK businesses up to £8 billion per year.
Researchers analyzed data from roughly 20,000 individuals between 16 and 65 years old, across 20 industries. This data was gathered as part of the Health Survey for England, a representative repeated cross-sectional survey of individuals in England, seeking changes in the health and lifestyles of individuals from across the country.
For most of the industries (11 out of 20), the mental health issues were more frequent among females compared to the males. The biggest increase was noticed in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector, where over 1 in 4 females (26.0%) reported issues, when contrasted with roughly 1 in 20 (5.6%) men. Not working further indicated having a much larger impact on females (45.0%) when contrasted to males (21.7%).
