TY - JOUR T1 - Does outdoor work during the winter season protect against depression and mood difficulties? JO - Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health PY - 2011/9VL - 37 IS - 5 SP - 446 EP - 449 AU - Hahn, Ina H AU - Grynderup, Matias Brødsgaard AU - Dalsgaard, Sofie B AU - Thomsen, Jane Frølund AU - Hansen, Åse Marie AU - Kærgaard, Anette AU - Kærlev, Linda AU - Mors, Ole AU - Rugulies, Reiner AU - Mikkelsen, Sigurd AU - Bonde, Jens Peter AU - Kolstad, Henrik Albert M3 - doi: 10.5271/sjweh.3155 UR - https://www.sjweh.fi/show_abstract.php?abstract_id=3155 KW - chronobiology disorder KW - depression KW - depressive disorder KW - epidemiology KW - light KW - mood difficulty KW - mood disorder KW - occupational exposure KW - outdoor work KW - seasonal affective disorder N2 - '

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OBJECTIVE ': 'At temperate latitudes, 1–5% of the population suffer from winter depression; during winter, mood difficulties tend to increase but may be alleviated by bright light therapy. Unlike indoor workers, outdoor workers are exposed to therapeutic levels of sunlight during winter. We hypothesized that outdoor work may protect against mood difficulties and depression.

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METHOD ': 'We studied this hypothesis among 2910 civil servants from Århus, Denmark, who participated in a survey in January–February 2009. Mental symptoms (N=422) defined a common case category that we broke down into two parts: depression (N=66) and mood difficulties but no depression (N=356). A total of 222 controls were also sampled from the study population. All 644 participants reported the extent of outdoor work.

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RESULTS ': 'The confounder-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of mood difficulties showed a decreasing trend by increasing hours of outdoor work of borderline statistical significance. The OR was 0.63 [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.34–1.18)] for those working outdoors for >2 hours a day. No such effect was suggested for depression.

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CONCLUSION ': 'Our study is limited by its cross-sectional design and low statistical power but nevertheless suggests that outdoor work during winter may protect against mood difficulties. If this finding holds true it may have significant impact on workers’ health as well as public health in general. Therefore, further studies are recommended.

SN - 0355-3140 ER -