Prevalence and attributing factors of occupational stress among primary healthcare physicians, Menoufia Governorate, Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Public Health and Community Medicine department, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University

2 Family Medicine department, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University

Abstract

Background: Stress at work, particularly for primary healthcare physicians, is known to worsen physical and psychological conditions in addition to lowering productivity. Objective: To measure the degree of occupational stress experienced by primary healthcare physicians and its attributing factors. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 240 primary healthcare physicians in the Menoufia governorate, Egypt. A pre-designed questionnaire about sociodemographic and occupational information was filled out by each participant. Additionally, the New Job Stress Scale was filled. It included 22 questions, divided into four subdomains: job stress, role expectation conflict, co-worker support, and work-life balance. Results: The mean age of the studied primary healthcare physicians was 33.4 years and 62.1% were female. They were working for an average 7.5±4.3 years and 59.6% of them worked one-to-four-night shifts per week. Approximately 1.2% of the physicians had low, 50% had moderate, and 48.8% had high levels of job stress. About 70% of them had poor co-worker support and work-life balance items, while 57.5% reported a moderate degree of role expectation conflict. The job stress and role expectation conflict items were significantly increased with studying advanced qualifications, increasing working hours, and working night shifts per week (P<0.05). The attributing factors for high-grade job stress were the fellowship degree, master’s degree, number of night shifts, and working hours per week. Conclusion: Stress is very prevalent among the studied primary healthcare physicians. Workload management and psychological support may help avoid occupational stress, promote a more engaged workforce, and improve productivity.

Keywords

Main Subjects

The Egyptian Journal of Community Medicine
Volume 43, Issue 1
January 2025
Pages 48-55

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics