Factors influencing the stress among the police personnel of Chitradurga city: a cross-sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20191853Keywords:
Police personnel, Health, Stress, OccupationAbstract
Background: Policemen are the real heroes of our country, but most people are unaware of the amount of stress they face every day. Their work involves protecting life, safeguarding properties by vigilant patrolling and maintaining law and order in the society. Hence the present study on the police personnel of Chitradurga city will help to reveal the impact of their job on their day to day life. The objectives of the study were to find out the stress level among the police personnel; to assess the influence of demographic, occupational and personal factors on the stress.
Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among the police personnel in the five police stations in Chitradurga city for a period of one year. Complete enumeration method was used to include 282 police men and women in the study. A pre-designed, pre-structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. The analysis was done using SPSS version 20. Appropriate statistical tests were applied.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 36.13±10.33. The participants in the study were predominantly males, 89%. About 70.9% of the study participants were found to be stressed - 38.7% had mild stress, 26.2% had moderate stress and 6% had severe stress.
Conclusions: The stress was found to be significantly associated with marital and socioeconomic status, station, shift work, having sustained injuries during work, attending court summons, smoking, alcohol consumption, tobacco chewing, less sleep and snoring.
References
Suresh RS, Anantharaman RN, Angusamy A, Ganesan J. Sources of Job Stress in Police Work in a Developing Country. Int J Business Management. 2013;8(13):102-10.
Centre for Occupational & Environmental Health. Occupational Physicians Reporting Activity. Quarterly Report. Manchester: University of Manchester, March 2000.
Indian Bureau of Police Res and Development. 'Police in India put up with long working hours without offs' February 15,2015. Available at: http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/policeinindiaputupwithlongworkinghourswithoutoffs_1546808.html. Accessed on 02 March 2019.
Hunter’s diseases of occupations. 10th ed. London: Hodder Arnold; 2010: 803-859.
McCreary DR, Thompson MM. Development of two reliable and valid measures of stressors in policing: The Operational and Organizational Police Stress Questionnaires. Int J Stress Manag. 2006;13:494-518.
Collins PA, Gibbs ACC. Stress in police officers: A study of the origins, prevalence and severity of stress-related symptoms within a county police force. Occup Med. 2003;53:256–64.
Geetha PR, Subbakrishna DK, Channabasavanna SM. Subjective well being among police personnel. Indian J Psychiatr. 1998;40:172–9.
Lipp ME. Stress and quality of life of senior Brazilian police officers. Span J Psychol. 2009;12:593-603.
Naik KD. An Analytical Study of Job Stress of the Police Personnel at Waghodiya Police Station in Vadodara City. Ninth AIMS Int Conference on Management 2012;4:625-31.
Kutlu R, Civi S, Karaoglu O. The effects of depression and smoking upon the quality of life of municipal police officers. Marmara Medical J. 2008;21(3);220-30.
Ponnuswami I. Stress Problems Faced by Police Constables in North Chennai. Global Res Analysis. 2013;2(4):233-5.
Ramakrishnan J, Majgi SM, Premarajan KC, Lakshminarayanan S, Thangaraj S, Chinnakali P. High prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors among policemen in Puducherry, South India. J Cardiovasc Dis Res. 2013;4(2):112–5.
Tharkar S, S Kumpatla, P Muthukumaran, Viswanathan V. High Prevalence of Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Risk Among Police Personnel Compared to General Population in India. JAPI. 2008;56:846-8.
Satapathy DM, Behera TR, Tripathy RM. Health Status of Traffic Police Personnel in Brahmapur City. Indian J Community Med. 2009;34(1):71–2.
Deschamps F, Paganon-Badinier I, Marchand AC, Merle C. Sources and assessment of occupational stress in the Police. J Occupational Health. 2003;45:358-64.
Deb S, Chakraborty T, Chatterjee P, Srivastava N. Are West Bengal police officers stressed? The Indian Police J. 2005;2:63-72.
