TY  - JOUR
TI  - Below the tip of the iceberg: A qualitative perspective of psychological and social aspects of occupational diseases
AB  - Objective: The inadequacy of preventative measures to combat the harmful effects ofthe working environment leads to circumstances where workers develop occupationaldiseases. Workers lose their good health and also experience other challenges invarious aspects of their daily lives such as being forced to quit their jobs or showingpoor performance at work. This study was carried out to observe, understand andanalyse the psychological and social consequences that occupational diseases maygive rise to. Methods: It is a quaWlitative study and involves in-depth interviewswith workers who were diagnosed with occupational diseases. Interviews, that wereconducted with 20 participants through the use of a voice recorder, cover both medicaland legal aspects. A targeted sample, chosen to represent the full spectrum of illness,was taken from those who had received medical or legal confirmation of occupationaldisease. The data was generated manually by the researchers and generated throughthe thematic analysis technique, again, by the researchers without the use of a software.Results: We found that the process of diagnosing occupational disease was in itselfa stressor and workers experienced negative effects on their mental health, familyrelationships, gender roles as well as their individual, social and daily living skills.Conclusion: These effects were manifested in the lives of participants suffering fromoccupational diseases as stigmatization, depression, social adjustment disorders,concerns about the future, fear of unemployment, impaired gender role and loss ofstatus. The main contribution of this study to the available studies is to demonstratethe necessity to include “stigma-related information” in the diagnosis and treatmentprocesses of occupational diseases.
AU  - Yasin, Yesim
AU  - Usseli, Tuba
DO  - 10.20518/tjph.824601
PY  - 2021
JO  - Türkiye Halk Sağlığı Dergisi
VL  - 19
IS  - 2
SN  - 1304-1096
SP  - 129
EP  - 139
DB  - TRDizin
UR  - http://search/yayin/detay/440100
ER  -