SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Occupational Health and Safety
This article is part of the Research TopicNavigating Environmental Hazards in the Workplace: Impacts and InterventionsView all 27 articles
Psychological Symptoms and Their Correlates in Pneumoconiosis Patients: A Bilingual Scoping Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1Division of Social Science, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada
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Purpose: Pneumoconiosis remains a global occupational and public health problem. This scoping review is aimed to identify the psychological symptoms and their correlates among pneumoconiosis patients. Methods: We conducted a bilingual scoping review following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Studies published between 2000 and 2025 were identified through searches of English-language (PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, ScienceDirect) and Chinese-language (CNKI, CBM, Wanfang, VIP) databases, using English and Chinese descriptors related to pneumoconiosis and psychological symptoms. The search was conducted from June 28 to July 5, 2025. Peer-reviewed empirical studies that reported quantitative psychological outcomes among patients diagnosed with pneumoconiosis were included.Results: A total of 55 studies were included in this review: 11 in English and 44 in Chinese. Considerable variability in reported prevalence was observed, primarily driven by differences in the instruments used and the cutoff criteria. For depression, with different diagnostic tools and criteria, Chinese studies reported prevalence ranging from 16.3% to 87.22%, and English studies reported prevalence ranging from 75.2% to 86.1%. For anxiety, again with varying assessment tools and criteria, Chinese studies reported rates from 9.5% to 61.97%, and English studies reported rates from 75% to 99.1%. Some studies also reported somatisation, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and sleep disturbances. Key correlates associated with these symptoms included biological, social, and psychological factors. Conclusion: This review synthesises evidence on the high prevalence of psychological symptoms among pneumoconiosis patients across diverse regions, which are associated with multifaceted factors. The scarcity of intervention studies, combined with methodological heterogeneity in existing research, underscores the urgent need for standardised assessment tools and the development of context-sensitive, biopsychosocial care models for this population.
Keywords: Pneumoconiosis, Mental Health, Occupational Health, Psychological symptoms, Pneumoconiosis patients.
Received: 10 Sep 2025; Accepted: 31 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Li and Tam. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xi-Ping Wang, xwangka@connect.ust.hk
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