Mental Health among Construction Workers
The construction industry has become increasingly concerned about poor mental health among its workers, which has been linked to work-related factors such as increased job demands, work-to-family conflict, and job precarity. One recent study found that nearly half of construction workers surveyed reported having depression at one point in their life, while in another almost one in three construction workers surveyed reported having anxiety at least once a month. However, some construction workers with poor mental health said they did not receive care, such as speaking with a mental health professional, due to costs. The prevalence of poor mental health in construction, paired with the industry’s high rates of overdose and suicide, makes it a necessity to continuously monitor mental health among the industry’s workers.
This interactive dashboard highlights general mental health trends among construction workers, including the percentage of workers with anxiety, depression, and psychological distress by year. The dashboard is split into two pages due to a change in the definitions of anxiety and depression following 2017. The dashboard level filter, Year, and the chart-level filter, Measure, update the charts and the bolded and underlined key findings.
Following the interactive dashboard, you will find more information on the data source, definitions, chart notes, a downloadable data file, and a recommended citation. This interactive data dashboard corresponds to a chapter in the upcoming PDF version of the Construction Chart Book-7th edition, which will be published later this summer. Data will be updated annually or as available. If you have questions or comments, please email [email protected].
About the Data
IPUMS: Lynn A. Blewett, Julia A. Rivera Drew, Miriam L. King and Kari C.W. Williams. IPUMS Health Surveys: National Health Interview Survey, Version 6.4 [dataset]. Minneapolis, MN: IPUMS, 2019. https://doi. org/10.18128/D070.V6.4.
National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), 2018-2024 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhis/index.html.
Definitions and Chart Notes
Definitions
- Anxiety – measured using two definitions:
- 2010-2017: Reported anxious feelings at least once a week with a level of “a lot” or “somewhere between a little and lot.”
- 2018-2024: Reported anxious feelings at least once a week with a level of “a lot” or “somewhere between a little and a lot” and/or reported medication for anxiety.
- Anxiety Medication – reported currently taking medication for feelings of worry, nervousness, or anxiety.
- Depression – measured using two definitions as defined below.
- 2010-2017: Reported depressed feelings at least once a week with a level of “a lot” or “somewhere between a little and a lot”.
- 2018-2024: Reported depressed feelings at least once a week with a level of “a lot” or “somewhere between a little and a lot” and/or reported medication for depression.
- Depression Medication – reported currently taking medication for depression.
- Mental health professional – a counselor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker.
- Overdose – a death with one of the following ICD-10 codes: X40–X44, X60–X64, X85, and Y10–Y14. ICD-10 codes X60-X64 are intentional, self-poisonings by drugs which are included in the poisoning means and suicide definitions.
- Psychological distress – Measured by the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K6), which involves 6 questions about a person’s emotional state in the past 30 days. Each question is scored from 0 (None of the time) to 4 (All of the time), yielding a score from 0 to 24 (the worst).
- Moderate psychological distress – score of 5-12.
- Serious psychological distress – score of 13 or higher.
- Suicide – a death with one of the following ICD-10 codes U03, X60–X84, and Y87. ICD-10 codes X60-X64 are intentional, self-poisonings by drugs which are included in the poisoning means and overdose definitions.
Chart Notes
- The definitions of anxiety and depression are not comparable across the two time periods due to the inclusion of the usage of anxiety/depression medications in the 2018-2024 definitions (see Anxiety and Depression definitions).
- Data for the years 2019 and 2022 are not included due to the rotating schedule of industry-specific data collection for the NHIS survey questionnaire. For more information, see: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhis/Sample-Adult-Questionnaire.pdf.