Association between exposure to violence, job stress and depressive symptoms among gig economy workers in Korea

Background: Gig workers, also known as platform workers, are independent workers who are not employed by any particular company. The number of gig economy workers has rapidly increased worldwide in the past decade. There is a dearth of occupational health studies among gig economy workers. We aimed to investigate the association between exposure to violence and job stress in gig economy workers and depressive symptoms.

Methods: A total of 955 individuals (521 gig workers and 434 general workers) participated in this study and variables were measured through self-report questionnaires. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 when the score was greater than or equal to 10 points. The odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was calculated using multivariable logistic regression adjusted for age, sex, working hours, education level, exposure to violence and job stress.

Results: 19% of gig economy workers reported depressive symptoms, while only 11% of general workers reported the depressive symptoms. In association to depressive symptoms among gig economy workers, the mainly result of odds ratios for depressive symptoms were as follows: 1.81 for workers type, 3.53 for humiliating treatment, 2.65 for sexual harassment, 3.55 for less than three meals per day, 3.69 for feeling too tired to do housework after leaving work.

Conclusions: Gig economic workers are exposed to violence and job stress in the workplace more than general workers, and the proportion of workers reporting depressive symptoms is also high. These factors are associated to depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the gig workers associated between depressive symptoms and exposure to violence, job stress.