Frequency and factors related to the psychosocial risk of workers of a prison

Abstract

Introduction: There are clear relations between work environment and mental health. The Ministry of Work adopted the battery to measure the psychosocial risk for workers. The prison guards endure special risk characteristics which merit measurement.
Objective: To determine the frequency of psychosocial risk and to describe the associated factors in the INPEC’s workers located in the city of Cali, Colombia 2018.
Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional observational study, which included 184 prison workers; who undertook the battery of psychosocial risk type B survey. The OR was calculated to demonstrate its association to sociodemographic variables. Additionally; a multiple variance analysis was conducted to be adjusted; the backward method to select variables was used.
Results: The domains and dimensions with higher risk, correspond to the intra-laboral questionnaire: leadership, control and demands with very high risk of 51,6%; 52.7% and 48.4% respectively. In the extra-laboral questionnaire, the influence of the extra-laboral environment on the job shows very high risk in 69%. The 72.3% of the participants did not show risk in the questionnaire evaluating the stress. The sociodemographic characteristics affect the domain, the more affected being: Leadership, Education level, years of service in the job; worked hours.
Conclusions: Penitentiary workers are exposed to high levels of psychosocial risks. Age, length of service, and job position play significant roles in the measurement of risks