Mental Emotional Disorders and Its Associated Factors among Workers of Upstream Oil and Gas Companies operating in Indonesia during COVID19 Pandemic

Introduction: The COVID19 pandemic that started since March 2020, has forced companies to reduce the number of workers on site and to prolong the on-site working duration. With this change, there was possibility of increased mental health problem among the workers including mental emotional disorder (MED).

Material and Methods: The data was obtained from an online form filled by workers. The variables were sex, age, education level, marital status, physical activity, employment status, duration of working in the said company, the position of work, presence of shift work, rotation system, change in working system, change of work load, change of working time, and change of income. We also integrated the Indonesian version of Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ) 20 to determine MED.

Results: The prevalence of MED among the 1542 respondents from 27 companies was 8.8%. Female sex (OR 3.37, p value <0.001), Age < 40 years-old (OR 3.68, p value <0.001), Single marital status (OR 2.36, p value <0.001), higher education level (OR 3.56, p value <0.001), poor physical activity (OR 1.72, p value <0.013), Working period ≤ 10 years (OR 1.84, p value <0.03), presence of change of working time (OR 1.55, p value <0.016), and presence of work load change (OR 3.07, p value <0.001) were factors significantly associated with presence of mental emotional disorder.

Conclusion: The prevalence of MED among the workers was higher than national data. Both personal and occupational factors were significantly associated with MED.