The Relationship between Deficiency of Family Cohesion and Prevalence of Physical and Mental Fatigue among Yazd Province Police Families

Background and Aim: Physical and mental fatigue leads to weakening of the performance of tasks of staff, high annual economic costs, and chronic medical conditions. The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between breakdown of family cohesion and incidence of physical and mental fatigue of family members.
Methods: This study conducted with a descriptive and survey design. Data were collected from 100 families (100 male and 100 female) of Yazd province police, Iran in 2014. Families were selected by using multi-phase cluster random sampling. Instruments of data gathering were Fatigue Scale (FS) and Family Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FCES). Data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).
Results: Prevalence rate of breakdown of family cohesion was 32% and prevalence rate of general fatigue (physical and mental) among families was 42%. There was a significant relationship between families with four levels of cohesion; disengaged, separate, connected and enmeshed regarding general fatigue (p<0.01), physical fatigue (p<0.01) and mental fatigue (p<0.01). Therefore, the relationship between breakdown in family cohesion and the prevalence of fatigue was confirmed.
Conclusion: Deficiency of family cohesion is one of the main risk factors concerning incidence of fatigue among family members. Individuals with different levels of family cohesion have different levels of physical and mental fatigue. Therefore, social and behavioral interventions to strengthen the cohesion of the family of police seem necessary.