Quality of sweatshop factory outdoor environments matters for workers’ stress and anxiety: A participatory smartphone-photography survey

Abstract

Stress and anxiety are pervasive mental health problems in “sweatshop” manufacturing factories, leading to depression, violence, and suicide. Previous studies ascribed workers’ mental health problems to social-demographic and employment factors. Few have explored whether, and to what extent, the outdoor environment impacts workers’ stress and anxiety status. Without this understanding, we lose the opportunity to create evidence-based environmental interventions that promote mental health for tens of millions of sweatshop workers worldwide. This participatory smartphone-photography survey (PSPS) study focuses on a large manufacturing factory in China where many suicides have occurred. 79 factory workers photographed 237 outdoor factory sites and then answered questions about the environmental qualities of the photographed sites, as well as their stress and anxiety status. After controlling for sociodemographic and employment factors, the regression analysis shows environmental factors collectively were significantly associated with workers’ stress and anxiety status, and several specific environmental factors showed a significant association.