Factors affecting mental health among workers in Malaysia during Covid-19 pandemic

An observation on the government helpline from March 25, 2020 to May 20, 2021, showed that about 85.5% of 145,173 calls been made through the helpline were from people with mental illness. Hospitals under the Ministry of Health reported that they have treated 1,080 cases of suicide attempts during that period. The mental case problem is increasing from time to time. Prior to the Covid-19 outbreak, 20 % of the population in this nation had stress symptoms, according to local surveys. However, the percentage has recently increased to 38%. Hence, the objective of this study is to identify factors influencing Malaysian workers mental health and to investigate the relationship between the factors. The data collection period starts from October 3, 2021 and ends on October 24, 2021. Questionnaire survey was created using Google forms. The survey was transmitted via social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Telegram. 156 respondents were participated in this survey. SPSS was used for data analysis. Factor analysis method was adopted to examine the underlying dimensions while Structural Equation Modelling technique approach was used to investigate the interactions between variables. Among the variables, depression has been identified as a significant variable with positive relation to Malaysian employees mental health. On the other hand, anxiety and stress did not have an effect on the mental health of the employees.