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Cited by 329Stress and Burnout ResearchWorkplace Health and Well-beingOccupational Health and Burnout

The relationship between organisational stressors and mental wellbeing within police officers: a systematic review

Open access
Purba, Amrit, Demou, Evangelia·2019·BMC Public Health
DOI 10.1186/s12889-019-7609-0PMC PMC6792329
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Abstract

Background: Occupational stressors in police work increase the risk for officer mental health morbidities. Officers’ poor mental wellbeing is harmful to the individual, can affect professionalism, organisational effectiveness, and public safety. While the impact of operational stressors on officers’ mental wellbeing is well documented, no review has systematically investigated organisational stressor impacts. This study aimed to conduct a systematic review to assess the relationship between organisational stressors and police officer mental wellbeing. Methods: Systematic review conducted following PRISMA and Cochrane Collaboration guidelines. Literature search was undertaken from 1990 to May 2017 on four databases (EBSCOHOST Medline/SocINDEX/PsycINFO/OVID Embase) and grey literature. Included articles were critically appraised and assessed for risk of bias. Narrative and evidence syntheses were performed by specific mental health outcomes. Results: In total, 3571 results were returned, and 15 studies met the inclusion criteria. All included studies were published in English between 1995 and 2016, had cross-sectional study designs, spanned across four continents and covered 15,150 officers. Strong evidence of significant associations was identified for organisational stressors and the outcomes of: occupational stress, psychiatric symptoms/psychological distress, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment. The organisational stressors most often demonstrating consistently significant associations with mental health outcomes included lack of support, demand, job pressure, administrative/organisational pressure and long working-hours. Conclusions: This review is the first to systematically examine organisational stressors and mental health in police officers. Organisational stressors that can be targeted by interventions and policy changes to secure officer wellbeing, a healthy work environment, and benefits to the organisation and the public are identified.

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Crossref · 10.1186/s12889-019-7609-0

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  • Police activity is described in the literature as stressful, leading to poor physical and mental health outcomes over time, in which burnout is included.

    “Police activity is, thus, described in the literature as stressful, leading to poor physical and mental health outcomes over time, in which burnout is included”

    From Psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with burnout in police officers: A systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as Purba and Demou, 2019

    The Background (Occupational stressors in police work; page unavailable) describes policing as inherently stressful, and the Results (Synthesis of results by outcome; page unavailable) report an association between police stress and burnout. The review addresses mental wellbeing outcomes, but these passages do not establish poor physical health outcomes or show that the outcomes develop over time. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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  • High job demands, effort-reward imbalance, low decision latitude, perceived injustice, low social support, lack of leadership, organisational culture, and working in urban environments were found to be associated with burnout.

    “In terms or organisational factors, high job demands, effort-reward imbalance, low decision latitude, perceived injustice, low social sup­ port, lack of leadership, organisational culture, and working in urban environments were found to be associated with burnout, in line with the wide literature (Nieuwenhuijsen et al., 2010; Purba and Demou, 2019; Sherwood et al., 2019).”

    From Psychosocial risk and protective factors associated with burnout in police officers: A systematic review (2023) · cites this paper as Purba and Demou, 2019

    The Results (Evidence synthesis; page not provided) link job demands, low decision latitude, lack of support, perceived unfairness, leadership and organisational culture to burnout or its components. The Results (Synthesis of results by outcome) distinguish composite burnout from emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation, so the sentence overstates how many factors were associated with burnout itself. Effort-reward imbalance is linked to psychological distress in the review's results, though the Discussion reports a separate study linking it to burnout; no retrieved passage supports working in urban environments. (LLM, conf=0.87)

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Cites

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2 of the 113 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. [13]COEH CfOEH Occupational physicians reporting activiity. Quarterly report 2000 Manchester University of Manchester
  2. [16]Rollinson D Organisational behaviour and analysis: an integrated appraoch 2005 3 London Pearson Education Limited
  3. [65]Boland A Cherry G Dickson R Doing a systematic review a students guide 2014 London SAGE Publications
  4. [77]Bernard B A critical review of epidemiological evidence for work-related muscoloskeletal disorders of the neck, upper extremity and low back 1997 Cincinnati National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health

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Authors
Purba, A., & Demou, E.
Affiliations
  • University of Glasgow (GB)
  • MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (GB)
Corresponding author
Demou, Evangelia
ORCID
Venue
BMC Public Health
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2019-10-15
Volume
19
Issue
1
Pages
1286-1286
ISSN
1471-2458 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12889-019-7609-0
PMC
PMC6792329
OpenAlex
W2980327373
Cited by
328
References
113
Citations by year
2026: 59 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 70 · 2023: 59 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 12
FWCI
3.44
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • BMC Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
Medical Research Council (MC_PC_13027)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Stress and Burnout Research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Workplace Health and Well-being
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
organisational stressors, police officers, psychological well-being, occupational stress, psychological distress, emotional exhaustion, job demands, lack of support, long working hours, administrative pressure, police mental health
MeSH terms
Occupational Stress, Mental Disorders, Humans, Mental Health, Risk Factors, Police

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