431 Work, Migration and Health: occupational burdens and their associations with physical and mental health

Abstract OP 1: Determinants of Health Disease and Interventions 1, B207 (FCSH), September 3, 2025, 14:30 - 15:30 Aims Migrants in Germany often work in low-wage and physically demanding jobs like construction, cleaning or healthcare. At the same time, psychological burdens at work increase. Aim of this contribution is to examine the associations of work-related burdens with physical and mental health. Methods Data of the multilingual, mixed-mode interview survey GEDA Fokus (11/2021-05/2022) was used, considering employees with Croatian, Italian, Polish, Syrian or Turkish citizenship aged 18 to 65 years (n = 3.353). Physical work-related burdens were captured by two items (e.g. carrying heavy loads), psychological burdens by five items (e.g. interferences in the working atmosphere). For both dimensions, reporting “sometimes” at least once was considered a medium burden; reporting “often” as a high burden, in contrast to universally reporting “rarely” or “never”. Arthrosis (12 months) was?considered as outcome for physical health, depressive symptoms?(PHQ-9) for mental health. Using Poisson regressions, prevalence rations (PR) were calculated for the effects of work-related burdens?while controlling for gender, age, education and citizenship. Results Of participants, 20.1% reported a medium and 32.3% a high level of physical work-related burden; 31.7% a medium and 35.0% a high level of psychological work-related burden. Arthrosis was least prevalent among those without physical burden (40.5% vs. medium: 45.8%, high: 65.3%). Also, depressive symptoms were least often observed among those without psychological burdens (6.6% vs. medium: 18.2%, high: 28.9%). PR for arthrosis was 1.65 for a high level of physical burden compared to none. For depressive symptoms, PR were 2.90 for a medium and 4.71 for a high level of psychological burden compared to their absence. Conclusion Occupational health is an important topic within migrant health and needs to be addressed in interventions, e.g. by improving accessibility to preventive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare services. Additionally, awareness among employers needs to be raised for mental wellbeing at the workplace.