The contribution of unpaid labour to poor mental health in the Swedish working population

Poor mental health is debilitating and of global public health concern. Unpaid labour has been recognised as an important yet neglected, and highly gendered, determinant of mental health. We examined the contribution of unpaid labour to poor mental health, in relation to other known risk factors, in employed adults. Study data is from 5462 employed Swedish women and men aged 30–49 years responding to a population survey in 2022. Independent associations between domestic work (inclusive of unpaid household and care work) and self-reported diagnosed depression and anxiety were examined by multiple logistic regression. The contributions of economic difficulties, loneliness, physical inactivity, risk consumption of alcohol and job dissatisfaction to depression and anxiety were also investigated. Gender-specific population attributable risks (PAR) were calculated to assess the contributions. In total, 10 % of the women and 6 % of the men reported depression while 12 % and 6 %, respectively, reported anxiety. Experiencing domestic work as burdensome explained 47 % (95 % CI: 31–57 %) (PAR) of the prevalence of depression in women, whereas no independent association was found in men. Loneliness, economic difficulties and physical inactivity accounted for 13–28 % of the prevalence of depression in both women and men. Burdensome domestic work was associated with anxiety in both genders and explained 22–25 % of the prevalence. Whilst longitudinal studies are needed, these results imply that unpaid labour is a highly important contributing factor to poor mental health, especially among women. Promoting a more equal division of unpaid labour has the potential to improve mental health across the working population.