Occupational stress and mental health of police officers in Nigeria

BackgroundPolice officers are exposed to occupational stressors; however, little attention is given to the effect of the stressors on their mental health and well-being in many low- and middle-income countries.ObjectiveTo determine the prevalence of operational and organizational stressors and the association with psychological well-being and common mental disorders among police officers in Nigeria.MethodsA total of 1224 randomly selected police officers in four states of Nigeria were interviewed. Validated instruments, including the perceived stress scale, police stress questionnaire (operational (PSQ-Op)/ organizational (PSQ-Org), 12-item general health questionnaire (GHQ-12), 9-item patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9), 7-item generalized anxiety disorder scale (GAD-7), Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI), and the alcohol, smoking, and substance involvement questionnaire (ASSIST), were administered. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Student t-test, ANOVA, and linear regression.ResultsThe overall mean scores on the PSQ-Op (4.24 (sd-1.25)) and PSQ-Org (4.20 (sd-1.25)) were indicative of severe stress. The rates of psychological distress were 22.9%, sleep disturbance- 51.8%, depression- 4.7%, and anxiety- 3.1%. Police occupational stress was associated with service location, perceived stress, psychological distress, sleep disturbance, depression, and anxiety symptoms in bivariate analysis. Perceived stress, sleep disturbance and service location remained significantly related to operational and organizational stress in multivariate analysis while PHQ-9 score was associated with PSQ-Op but not to PSQ-Org.ConclusionPolice officers in Nigeria experience an excessive amount of stress related to their work, and this stress is associated with poor mental and emotional health and is determined by the service location.