Workplace violence and its strong association with depression among Brazilian workers: insights from a national survey.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the association between workplace violence and depression among Brazilian workers. Methods: We used a cross-sectional study using data from the Brazilian National Survey (PNS, 2019), a population-based study. A sample of 52,475 workers (18-98 years old; N = 22,797 women and 29,678 men) answered a questionnaire covering sociodemographic data, workplace violence (psychological and physical or sexual) in the last 12 months, and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Logistic regression models were performed and adjusted for sociodemographic factors. All analyses were conducted using weighted and stratified data by gender. Results: The prevalence of depression in this group of workers was 15.8% for women and 5.7% for men. Workplace psychological violence was reported by 4.4% of women and 4.9% of men. For physical or sexual violence, the figures were 0.5% for women and 0.6% for men. All types of violence were significantly associated with depression for women (psychological: OR: 3.37, 95% CI 2.31-4.93 and physical/sexual: OR: 2.44, 95% CI 1.15-5.15) and for men (psychological: OR: 4.07, 95% CI 3.13-5.27 and physical/sexual: OR: 3.88, 95% CI 1.06-5.27). Both types of workplace violence interacted with gender without noticeable differences between men and women. Conclusion: Workplace violence is associated with depression in both sexes. Preventive and management strategies for workplace violence are recommended.