A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN A LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF LAGOS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

1.0   INTRODUCTION

Teaching  is  an  age  long  profession which  like  any  other  profession  may predispose  its practitioners (teachers) to adverse health  conditions (Pithers and Soden, 1998). These  conditions may be physical or psychological. This has led over the years to the development of concepts of Occupational Health and Occupational Psychiatry.

Occupational  health  has  been  defined as  the  promotion  and  maintenance  of the highest degree  of  physical,  mental  and  social  well-being  of  workers in all occupations by  preventing  departures  from health, controlling  risks  and the adaptations  of  work  to  people and people  to their  jobs (ILO/WHO, 1950).      Occupational  or  Industrial  psychiatry  on  the  other  hand  has  been  defined  as that  area of psychiatry specifically concerned with  vocational  maladjustment and  the  psychiatric  aspects  of problems at work. Examples of psychiatric symptoms include insecurity, reduced self-esteem, anger and resentment at having to work (Sadock and

Sadock, 2003).

Several studies conducted overseas have shown high levels of psychological disturbance among school teachers. In Western Australia for example, Keith and Tuettemann (1990) found the level of psychological distress among secondary school teachers to be twice that expected in general population.  Porto et  al  (2006)    found  a  prevalence  rate  of

44% among teachers  in  Brazil while Baeur et al  (2007)  in  their  own  study  found  a prevalence  rate of  29.8%  among secondary school teachers  in  Germany.

The levels of psychological disturbance were also found to be higher in teachers when compared to other professional groups such as clerks, nurses and other health care professionals (Lodolo et al, 2004; Sveinsdottir et al 2007). A  number  of  factors  have  been  implicated  as being  responsible  for this  high levels  of  psychological  disturbance  in  teachers. These include socio-demographic  factors,  occupational  factors  and  factors associated  with  personality  characteristics of the teachers (Jurado  et  al,  2005;  Gasparini et al, 2006; Nagai  et  al, 2007 ).

The  psychological disturbances  found  to  be  high  among  teachers  include  anxiety, irritability, burnout,  fatigue,  depression, psychoactive substance abuse and  somatoform  disorders (Watts and Short, 1990; Cropley et al,1999; Kovess-Masfety et al, 2006)  These high levels of psychological disturbance have been associated with poor performance at work, absenteeism and early  retirement  of  teachers  leading  to  loss  of manpower in the teaching profession (Brown et al, 2006; Maquire and O’Connell,  2007).

In Nigeria, a number of studies have been reported on various occupational groups. Among these are the studies by Shanker and Famuyiwa (1991) on Stress Among Factory

Workers In A Developing Country, Haruna et al (1998) on the Psychiatric Morbidity Among Workers At A Paint Factory In Nigeria and that of Yussuf et al (2006) in which  they carried out a Survey Of Psychiatric Morbidity And The Risk Factors Among Chief Executives Of Tertiary Health Institutions. However, studies on the mental health of teachers in Nigeria appears to be scanty. This is in spite of reports from other countries that showed a relatively high psychiatric morbidity among teachers. It is in view of this and the realization of the importance of good mental health of teachers in the performance of their strategically important profession that this study is conceived.

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PSYCHIATRIC MORBIDITY AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN A LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF LAGOS STATE

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