ArticlePloS one2020
Probable PTSD, depression and anxiety in 40,299 UK police officers and staff: Prevalence, risk factors and associations with blood pressure.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- A multisite feasibility randomized clinical trial of mindfulness-based resilience training for aggression, stress, and health in law enforcement officers.BMC complementary medicine and therapies · 2024Trial
- Humor as a double-edged weapon in psychopathology: light and dark humor styles, coping, and personality in police mental health.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2025Article
- Implementation and evaluation of a psychological first aid program to manage post-traumatic stress injuries among Canadian police officers.Implementation science communications · 2025Article
- Prevalence of depression and analysis of its association with anxiety in military police officers: a cross-sectional study.Revista brasileira de enfermagem · 2025Article
- Understanding the interplay between stress, anxiety, and depression and their impact on health in traffic police officers.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
- Police officer occupational health: a model of organizational constraints, trauma exposure, perceived resources, and agency.Journal of occupational medicine and toxicology (London, England) · 2024Article
- Factors and age-related drivers that influence self-rated bad health in police officers: A cross-sectional study.Preventive medicine reports · 2024Article
- Sickness absence and associations with sociodemographic factors, health risk behaviours, occupational stressors and adverse mental health in 40,343 UK police employees.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2024Article
- Multifaceted ORganizational InterventiONs (M-ORION) project for prevention of depression and anxiety among workers: study protocol for a five-arm cluster randomized controlled trial.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Protecting the Protectors: Moral Injury, Coping Styles, and Mental Health of UK Police Officers and Staff Investigating Child Sexual Abuse Material.Depression and anxiety · 2024Article
- Prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder and associated factors among police officers in Central Gondar Zone, North West Ethiopia, 2023: institutional-based cross-sectional study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Association of diastolic and systolic blood pressure with depression: a cross-sectional study from NHANES 2005-2018.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Subgroups of depressive symptoms in Korean police officers: A latent class analysis.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- 'You get looked at like you're failing': A reflexive thematic analysis of experiences of mental health and wellbeing support for NHS staff.Journal of health psychology · 2023Article
- Functional connectivity between interoceptive brain regions is associated with distinct health-related domains: A population-based neuroimaging study.Human brain mapping · 2023Article
- Posttraumatic stress disorder and depression after the 2018 Strasbourg Christmas Market terrorist attack: a comparison of exposed and non-exposed police personnel.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2023Article
- The unique association of posttraumatic stress disorder with hypertension among veterans: A replication of Kibler et al. (2009) using Bayesian estimation and data from the United States-Veteran Microbiome Project.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2023Article
- Characteristics of Sleep Paralysis and Its Association with Anxiety Symptoms, Perceived Stress, PTSD, and Other Variables Related to Lifestyle in Selected High Stress Exposed Professions.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Brewin, Miller and Burchell (2022).PloS one · 2022Article
- Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Stevelink et al. (2020).PloS one · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionPolice employees undertake challenging duties which may adversely impact their health. This study explored the prevalence of and risk factors for probable mental disorders amongst a representative sample of UK police employees. The association between mental illness and alterations in blood pressure was also explored.
methodsData were used from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study which was established to monitor the possible physical health impacts of a new communication system on police employees. Data included sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle habits, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and blood pressure. Descriptive statistics were used to explore the prevalence of probable mental disorders and associated factors. Stepwise linear regression was conducted, controlling for confounding variables, to examine associations between mental disorders and blood pressure.
resultsThe sample included 40,299 police staff, police constable/sergeants and inspectors or above. Probable depression was most frequently reported (9.8%), followed by anxiety (8.5%) and PTSD (3.9%). Groups at risk for probable mental disorders included police staff, and police employees who reported drinking heavily. Police employees exposed to traumatic incidents in the past six months had a doubling in rates of anxiety or depression and a six-fold increase in PTSD compared to those with no recent trauma exposure. Adjusted logistic regression models did not reveal any significant association between probable mental disorders and systolic blood pressure but significantly elevated diastolic blood pressure (≈1mmHg) was found across mental disorders.
conclusionsThese results show lower rates of probable mental disorders, especially PTSD, than reported in other studies focusing on police employees. Although mental ill health was associated with increased diastolic blood pressure, this was unlikely to be clinically significant. These findings highlight the importance of continued health monitoring of members of the UK police forces, focusing on employees recently exposed to traumatic incidents, heavy drinkers and police staff.
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