Original scientific paper
STRESS, DEPRESSION AND BURNOUT AMONG HOSPITAL PHYSICIANS IN RIJEKA, CROATIA
Morana Tomljenovic
; Department of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Branko Kolaric
; Department of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia ; Zagreb County Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Dinko Stajduhar
; Dr. Ivan Barbot, Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Popovaca, Croatia
Vanja Tesic
; Department of Social Medicine and Epidemiology, School of Medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia; Department of Epidemiology, Andrija Stampar Teaching Institute of Public Health, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
Background: Six years of recent ongoing economic and structural crisis in Croatia have brought to a significant decrease of
socioeconomic standard in our country, and had an important impact on the health care system. In this background we examined the
prevalence of depression and burnout and their association with work stressors.
Subjects and methods: Cross sectional survey was conducted with self reported questionnaires in 459 hospital physicians in
Rijeka, Croatia. Physicians were divided into three groups: surgical, nonsurgical and diagnostic group. Socio-demographic and
work-related characteristics questionnaire, Occupational Stress Assessment Questionnaire (OSAQ), Maslach Burnout Inventory-
Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) were used. Sperman correlation and logistic
regression were calculated to rank association between stressors at work with depression and burnout syndrome.
Results: Response rate was 62.3%, (286/459). Every fifth doctor experienced all examined stressors in the workplace as
stressful. The prevalence of moderate and severe depression was 12.2%. High levels of emotional exhaustion were 43.6%,
depersonalization 33.5%, and lack of personal accomplishment 49.1%. There was no statistical difference in surgical, nonsurgical
and diagnostic groups in depression and all domains of MBI-HSS. Almost all stressors were correlated with depression and burnout
syndrome. Most of the perceived stressors were significant predictors of burnout syndrome and depression.
Conclusions: High levels of burnout domain compared to overall results from similar studies from other countries, placed the
results in our sample on the higher end of the range, while results for depression after adjustment with lower cutoff point would be
similar to those usually found in research literature. Our study showed that burnout is highly prevalent among Croatian physicians.
Target interventions at the workplace should be considered as one of the strategies to reduce negative impact of work stress on
physicians’ mental health.
Keywords
burnout; depression; physicians; hospital; stress
Hrčak ID:
265278
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2014.
Visits: 505 *