This post shows that physical health and mental health are intertwined. I look at several working conditions that seemingly should only effect mental health–age discrimination, race discrimination, sex discrimination, sexual harassment, and other harassment–and find that these conditions also lead to poor physical health. On the flip side, I look at working conditions that seemingly should only effect physical health–back pain, pain in arms, and getting hurt at work–and find that these conditions also cause poor mental health.

Turning to data from the General Social Survey (GSS), I first document that the vast majority of survey respondents strongly agree or agree that safety and health conditions are good at work. In fact, the percentage who strongly agree or agree grew 4% between 2002 and 2018–from 91% to 95%. Because mental health and physical health are intertwined, good workplace safety and health conditions contributes to both mental and physical health. Policies to curb workplace discrimination and harassment would also contribute to both mental and physical health as well.

Figure 2a and 2b, below, show the impact of discrimination, harassment and physical pain on mental health and physical health. First, I look at the impact of workplace age discrimination on the average number of poor mental health days in the past 30 days. I find that those who face age discrimination report on average 2.61 more poor mental health days. Looking at the number of poor physical health days, I find that those who face age discrimination report on average 1.77 more poor physical health days. These differences, and all the differences reported in this post, are statistically significant.

Those who face workplace racism report 1.64 more poor mental health days and 1.06 more poor physical health days than employees who don’t face workplace racism. In terms of workplace sexism, those who face sex discrimination report 3.04 more poor mental health days and 1.37 more poor physical health days. Those who face workplace sexual harassment report 2.98 more poor mental health days and 2.63 more poor physical health days than those who do not experience sexual harassment in the workplace. Employees who experience other types of workplace harassment report 3.57 more poor mental health days and 2.63 more poor physical health days.

Turning to physical pain, I find that those with back pain report 3.08 more poor physical health days and 3.06 more poor mental health days than those who do not report back pain. Those who experience pain in arms report 3.06 more poor physical health days and 3.12 more poor mental health days. Finally, for those who got hurt at work, they report 2.54 more poor physical health days and 1.24 more poor mental health days.

This short exercise shows that mental health and physical health are intimately connected. Workplaces that protect employees against poor physical health are also decreasing the number of days employees experience poor mental health. The opposite is also true. Those who protect employees’s mental health decrease the number of days employees experience poor physical health.

Figure 2a.  Average Days of Poor Mental Health in Past 30 days by Work Condition
	No	Yes	Difference (Yes-No)	Significant?	T-Statistic
Age discrimination	3.352498	5.962644	2.610146	Yes	9.3229
Race Discrimination	3.474453	5.115813	1.64136	Yes	4.7702
Sex Discrimination	3.319859	6.363834	3.043976	Yes	8.8523
Sexual Harrassment	3.413764	6.389764	2.976	Yes	6.5131
Other Harrassment	3.182592	6.752212	3.569621	Yes	12.4683
Back Pain	2.711352	5.768071	3.056719	Yes	16.3114
Pain in Arms	2.667045	5.782238	3.115193	Yes	16.8275
Hurt at Work	3.216792	4.453336	1.236544	Yes	9.142

Figure 2b.  Average Days of Poor Physical Health in Past 30 days by Work Condition
	No	Yes	Difference (Yes-No)	Significant	T-Statistic
Age discrimination	2.446853	4.216216	1.769363	Yes	6.7115
Race Discrimination	2.533382	3.595687	1.062306	Yes	3.2379
Sex Discrimination	2.5044	3.869565	1.365165	Yes	4.601
Sexual Harrassment	2.495442	5.129921	2.63448	Yes	6.7102
Other Harrassment	2.41271	4.282164	1.869453	Yes	7.5748
Back Pain	1.775415	4.854037	3.078622	Yes	19.2728
Pain in Arms	1.748866	4.81031	3.061444	Yes	19.397
Hurt at Work	2.325791	4.862797	2.537006	Yes	10.8036

Source: https://gssdataexplorer.norc.org/variables/2787/vshow