A preliminary study on related factors of mental health in nuclear power plant operators / 中华放射医学与防护杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the status of nuclear power plant operators in mental health and its correlation with emotional stability,liveliness,anxiety and urgency.Methods 255 male operators were randomly selected from three nuclear power bases,meanwhile 61 undergraduates were used as control group.The mental health and neurobehavioral evaluation system of Chinese nuclear power plant operators was developed by Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University,which was used to assess mental health of the subjects.The scores of mental health personality factors were recorded,together with four main personality factors including emotional stability,liveliness,anxiety and urgency.Results The score of lie was lower than 8 which showed all inspected groups were normal. 1.57％ (4/255) operators had psychological disorders,3.92％ ( 10/255 ) had poor mental health,27.84％ ( 71/255 ) had general mental health,66.7％ (170/255) had excellent mental health,whereas 9.84％ (6/61)for control group had psychological disorders.Obvious difference was observed in the final scores between the nuclear power plant operators and control group.The former gained higher scores on mental health,emotional stability,and lower scores on anxiety and urgency ( t =3.437,4.423,- 2.493,- 2.093,P ＜ 0.05 ).Both groups aged over 27 years and with length of service over 5 years were awarded higher scores on mental health,emotional stability( t =2.585,2.349 ; t =2.606,2.947,P ＜ 0.05 ),lower scores on anxiety and urgency (t =- 3.407,- 2.138 ; t =- 2.941,- 2.256,P ＜ 0.05).The mental health was positively correlated with emotional stability and liveliness ( r =0.721,0.650,P ＜ 0.05),but negatively correlated with anxiety and urgency(r =- 0.809,- 0.693,P ＜ 0.05 ).Conclusions The majority of nuclear power plant operators had excellent psychological quality,but some factors should be paid more attention,such as different ages and length of service time.