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Table 3 Harmonising the data from the UK Health Survey for England and the Thai Cohort Study

From: Psychosocial job characteristics, wealth, and culture: differential effects on mental health in the UK and Thailand

 

UK Health Survey for England

Thai Cohort Study (TCS)

Original format

UK-TCS harmonised

Original format

TCS-UK harmonised

Psychological distress

General Health Questionnaire-(GHQ) 12 questions:a able to concentrate, lost much sleep over worry, felt playing useful part in things, felt capable of making decisions, felt constantly under strain, felt could not overcome difficulties, able to enjoy normal day-to-day activities, been able to face problems, been feeling unhappy and depressed, been losing confidence in self, been thinking of self as worthless, been feeling reasonably happy

Final binary outcome: a

Kessler Psychological distress: (three questions)

Final binary outcome:

High distress score 4+: 11.7% (132)

In the past 4 weeks, about how often… 1) did you feel nervous? 2) did you feel restless and fidgety? 3) did you feel that everything was an effort?

High distress (all/most of the time) 12.3% (3,857)

Responses on a five-point scale: ‘all of the time’, ‘most of the time’, ‘some of the time’, ‘little of the time’, ‘none of the time’.

 

‘All’ or ‘most’ of the time coded as having high distress; rest code as no serious problem.

 

Job security

How likely is it that you will lose your job and become unemployed within the next twelve months? Please estimate the probability of such a chance on a scale from 0 to 100. (0 means that such a change will definitely not take place. 100 means that such a change definitely will take place.)

Collapsed response categories:

How secure do you feel about your job or career future on your current occupation?

Response categories: Extremely secure 18.5% (5726)

0 28.0% (317) b

 

Secure 50.1% (15553)

10–30 40.6% (459)

- Extremely secure

Moderately secure 21.5% (6,667)

40–60 19.5% (221)

- Secure

Not at all secure 10.0% (3,094)

>60 11.9% (135)

- Moderately secure

 

- Not at all secure

Decision at work

Do you have a choice deciding how you go about your work?

Collapsed response categories:

I have a good deal of say in decisions about work

Response categories:

Often 55.1% (16,996)

 

All/most of the

- Often

Sometimes 33.4% (10,295)

- All of the time

time 48.5% (547)

- Sometimes

 

- Rarely

Rarely 9.1% (2,807)

- Most of the time

Much/some of the time 35.3% (398)

- Never

Never 2.5% (760)

 

Occasionally 11.9% (135)

 

Never 4.2% (47)

- Much of the time

- Some of the time

- Occasionally

- Never

Coping with demands

How much do you agree or disagree with the statement that ‘I feel able to cope with the demands of my job’?

Collapsed response categories:

Your work situation… I have enough time to do everything

Response categories:

Often (strongly agree) 38.9% (438)

- Often

Often 48.2% (14,834)

- Sometimes

Sometime 40.5% (12,473)

- Rarely

Rarely/never 11.3% (3,475)

- Strongly agree

Sometime (agree) 49.1% (553)

- Never

- Agree

- Neither agree nor disagree

Rarely/never 12.0% (135)

(neither agree nor disagree/

- Disagree

disagree/strongly disagree)

- Strongly disagree

Support from employers

Do you get help and support from your line manager?

Collapsed response categories:

How would you rate the support you are getting from employer/boss?

Collapsed response categories:

- Often

Often 39.9% (449)

- A lot of support

Often (lot/quite a bit) 58.4% (17,937)

- Sometimes

- Quite a bit of support

- Seldom

Sometimes 34.6% (389)

- A little support

Sometimes (little) 23.8% (7,309)

- Never

Seldom/never 12.5% (140)

- Very little support

Seldom (very little) 8.7% (2,680)

- Does not apply/have no manager

Does not apply 12.9% (145)

- Not relevant

Not apply (not relevant 9.1% (2,790)

Occupation status

National Statistics Socio-economic Classification

Response categories:

Current occupation

Response categories:

- managerial and professional

High 53.1% (597)

professionals/managers

High 25.3% (6,703)

- intermediate

Medium 18.8% (211)

- office assistants

Medium 44.3% (11,758)

- routine and manual

Low 28.2% (317)

- skilled and manual workers

Low 30.4% (8,059)

  1. aGHQ-12: UK General Health Questionnaire with 12 items; each item categorised on a four-point scale later collapsed to a positive/negative binary result. The negative binary response (0) includes ‘not at all’ or ‘same as usual’ and the positive binary response (1) includes ‘more than usual’ or ‘much more than usual’. The sum of binary responses across the 12 items was then collapsed, the binary total for each individual was divided into <4 (no serious problems) and 4+ (serious problems) for final comparative analyses
  2. bThis is the smallest proportion of the UK total that could reasonably to be classified as ‘extremely secure’