Authors: I. Mariska, D. Sosrosumihardjo, W. Imam, B. Basuki
Affiliation: Aviation Medicine Postgraduate Program, Universitas Indonesia, Civil Aviation Medical Center, Indonesia.
Address for communication: Civil Aviation Medical Center, Indonesia
Introduction: Tendency of depression could occurred among flight attendants and could affected their performance and caused absence from work. The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of purser and other related factors to the tendency of depression among civil aviation flight attendants in Indonesia.
Methods: A cross-sectional study with purposive sampling were conducted among flight attendants who were taking routine medical examination at Civil Aviation Medical Center, Jakarta from 12-18th May 2014. Inclusion criteria were subjects who didn’t take antidepressants or benzodiazepine and didn’t have drinking habits of alcohol. The tendency of depression was measured using “Beck Depression Inventory Questionnaire”. The risk factors which were purser support, support outside of work and mental workload were assessed using “NIOSH Generic Job Stress Questionnaire” then were analyzed using linear regression.
Results: Subjects were 145 from 242 respondents who met the inclusion criteria. Purser support, support outside of work, and mental workload were dominant factors for the tendency of depression. Each additional point of purser support decreased 0.552 point to the tendency depression [regression coefficient (β) = -0.552; P = 0.033]. Furthermore, each additional point of support outside of work decreased 1.191 point to the tendency depression (β = -1.191, P= 0.000). On other hand, one additional point of mental workload increased 0.549 points to the tendency of depression (β = 0.549, P = 0.045).
Conclusion: Higher purser support and support outside of work reduced the tendency of depression, on while higher mental workload increased the tendency of depression.