The Swedish mailman - a study about incipient exhaustion and its association with psychosocial and demographic factors

Sammanfattning: Objective. The study examines the prevalence of incipient exhaustion among Swedish mailmen and its association with the psychosocial variables community and reward, and the demographic variables age, gender and leisure time physical activity (PA). Background. Mental health is a growing issue in postindustrial countries, and in Sweden the diagnosis exhaustion disorder has been introduced. Recent studies suggest the importance for investigating early signs for exhaustion. Mailmen is an occupational group that has a physically and mentally demanding work which makes them an interesting group to examine in regards to this topic. Method. The study used a cross-sectional electronic questionnaire design and had a sample of n = 112 (response rate 7 %) mailmen from PostNord. The Lund University Checklist for Incipient Exhaustion (LUCIE) was used to measure incipient exhaustion. Results. The prevalence of incipient exhaustion was 15.2 %. There were significant associations between scores on LUCIE and both community and reward. No significant associations were found between LUCIE and the demographic variables age, gender and PA. Conclusion. This sample of mailmen report more strain than the general population. The findings adds to previous research investigating mailmen. Due to the low response rate, generalizations must however be done with great caution.