Mental Health Disorders and Their Relationship with Work-Family Conflict in Upper Egypt

Data for mental health disorders and its relation to work and family issues in Egypt are scarce. We conducted this cross-sectional study among 1021 participants aged 18-59 years from Minia, Upper Egypt to measure the prevalence of mental health disorders and their associations with work-family conflict. Mental disorders were assessed by the Mini International Neuropsychiatry Interview (MINI-Plus) diagnostic interview and work-family conflict was assessed by the National Study of Midlife Development in the US. Work-to-family conflict (WFC) was associated with a 5.2% increase in the probability of mental health disorders; the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI) in subjects with high versus low WFC was 2.26 (1.18-4.34). On the other hand, there was a 2.0% increase in the probability of mental health disorders with high family-to-work conflict (FWC); OR (95% CI) was 1.37 (0.78-2.41). One point increment in the total score of work-family conflict was associated with a 3.4% increased probability for having a mental health disorder. The highest probabilities for having mental disorders were found among participants whose jobs require a lot of travel away from home (3.4%) or take much energy (3.5%) and among those whose family activities stop them from getting the amount of sleep needed to do their jobs (3.4%).