Differences in Well-being between GPs, Medical Specialists, and Private Physicians: The Role of Psychosocial Factors

Objective To examine the well‐being differences among physicians working in different health care sectors and to test whether psychosocial stressors account for these differences. The well‐being indicators used were psychological distress, self‐rated health, and work ability. Data Sources/Study Sett...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Health services research 2012-02, Vol.47 (1pt1), p.68-85
Main Authors: Kuusio, Hannamaria, Heponiemi, Tarja, Aalto, Anna-Mari, Sinervo, Timo, Elovainio, Marko
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Cross-Sectional Studies
Doctors
Family physicians
Female
Finland
General practice
General practitioners
General Practitioners - psychology
General Practitioners - statistics & numerical data
Health Care Sector - statistics & numerical data
Health Status
Humans
Job satisfaction
Male
Medicine - statistics & numerical data
Mental Health - statistics & numerical data
Middle Aged
Occupational stress
physician well-being
Physicians
Physicians (General practice)
Physicians - psychology
Physicians - statistics & numerical data
Primary care
private health care
Private Practice - statistics & numerical data
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Psychosocial factors
Response rate
secondary care
Specialists
Stress (Psychology)
Stress, Psychological - epidemiology
Stress, Psychological - etiology
Studies
Surveys and Questionnaires
Wellbeing
Work environment
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Summary:Objective To examine the well‐being differences among physicians working in different health care sectors and to test whether psychosocial stressors account for these differences. The well‐being indicators used were psychological distress, self‐rated health, and work ability. Data Sources/Study Setting A total of 2,841 randomly selected Finnish physicians (response rate 57 percent) returned the postal questionnaire, of which 2,047 (1,241 women) fulfilled all the participant criteria. Study Design This is a cross‐sectional questionnaire study. Principal Findings General practitioners and medical specialists experienced lower well‐being than private physicians and this difference was partly explained by differences in psychosocial stressors. Conclusions General practitioners and medical specialists report more problems in well‐being than private physicians. It is of particular importance to be aware of the sector‐specific difficulties in work environments.
ISSN:0017-9124
1475-6773
DOI:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2011.01313.x