[Psychosocial stress environment and health workers in public health: Differences between primary and hospital care].

OBJECTIVE

To describe the psychosocial environment of health professionals in public health in primary and hospital care, and compare it with that of the general Spanish working population, as well as to evaluate the effect of psychosocial risk factors on symptoms related to perceived stress.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study with stratified random sampling.

SETTING

Health care workers in the province of Granada, distributed in 5 hospitals and 4 health districts.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 738 employees (medical and nursing staff) of the Andalusian Health Service (SAS) were invited to take part.

MAIN MEASUREMENTS

CopSoQ/Istas21 questionnaire developed for the multidimensional analysis of the psychosocial work environment. Stress symptoms were measured with the Stress Profile questionnaire.

RESULTS

The response rate was 67.5%. Compared with the Spanish workforce, our sample showed high cognitive, emotional, and sensory psychological demands, possibilities for development and sense of direction in their work. Primary care physicians were the group with a worse psychosocial work environment. All the groups studied showed high levels of stress symptoms. Multivariate analysis showed that variables associated with high levels of stress symptom were younger and with possibilities for social relations, role conflict, and higher emotional demands, and insecurity at work.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support that the psychosocial work environment of health workers differs from that of the Spanish working population, being more unfavorable in general practitioners.