Health Effects of Stress and Insecurity among Employees in the Banking Sector - Comparison with Employees in other Sectors

This study measures, on a representative sample of employees in the banking sector (N=428), the prevalence of 18 work condition factors which may have an influence on the levels of stress and insecurity. The analysis then points out the relationship between these two latter factors and 16 health indicators of subjective morbidity and medical consumption. The main results show a significant increase in the prevalence of subjective morbidity and medical consumption with the increase in exposure to a "medium to high" level of fear of dismissal and to a continuous level of stress in the previous 12 months. The comparative analysis carried out on a representative sample of employees in other economic sectors (N=859) shows that employees in the banking sector declare higher levels of stress and insecurity and show evidence of significantly worse health indicators with respect to those of employees working in other sectors.