Evaluation of factors affecting psychological morbidity in emergency medicine practitioners

doi:10.5847/wjem.j.1920-8642.2016.03.007

Abstract

Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Assessing and evaluating mental health status can provide educational planners valuable information to predict the quality of physicians' performance at work. These data can help physicians to practice in the most desired way. The study aimed to evaluate factors affecting psychological morbidity in Iranian emergency medicine practitioners at educational hospitals of Tehran.
METHODS: In this cross sectional study 204 participants (emergency medicine residents and specialists) from educational hospitals of Tehran were recruited and their psychological morbidity was assessed by using a 28-question Goldberg General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). Somatization, anxiety and sleep disorders, social dysfunction and depression were evaluated among practitioners and compared to demographic and job related variables.
RESULTS: Two hundreds and four participants consisting of 146 (71.6%) males and 58 (28.4%) females were evaluated. Of all participants, 55 (27%) were single and 149 (73%) were married. Most of our participants (40.2%) were between 30-35 years old. By using GHQ-28, 129 (63.2%) were recognized as normal and 75 (36.8%) suffered some mental health disorders. There was a significant gender difference between normal practitioners and practitioners with disorder (P=0.02) while marital status had no significant difference (P=0.2). Only 19 (9.3%) declared having some major mental health issue in the previous month.
CONCLUSION: Females encountered more mental health disorders than male (P=0.02) and the most common disorder observed was somatization (P=0.006).

Key words: Psychological morbidity, Mental health problem, Goldberg General Health Questionnaire, Short running head, Factors affecting psychological morbidity

Mehdi Momeni, Farshid Fahim, Elnaz Vahidi, Amir Nejati, Morteza Saeedi. Evaluation of factors affecting psychological morbidity in emergency medicine practitioners[J]. World Journal of Emergency Medicine, 2016, 7(3): 203-207.

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Variables	n (%)
Gender
Male	146 (71.6)
Female	58 (28.4)
Marital status
Married	149 (73)
Single	55(27)
Age (years)
26-30	46 (22.5)
31-35	82 (40.2)
36-40	47 (23)
41-45	23 (11.3)
≥45	6 (2.9)
Degree of practicing emergency medicine (EM)
PGY1 resident	51 (25%)
PGY2 resident	56 (27.5)
PGY3 resident	54 (26.5)
EM attending	43 (21.1)
Work hours/month
<100	17 (8.3)
100-200	17 (8.3)
200-300	90 (44.1)
>300	80 (39.2)
Work experience (years)
<10	80 (39.2)
10-15	63 (30.9)
15-20	44 (21.6)
>20	17 (8.3)
Work place
Dr. Shariati and Imam Khomeini hospitals	77 (37.7)
Hazrat Rasul and Sina hospitals	38 (18.6)
Imam Hussein and Haft-Tir hospitals	48 (23.5)
Besat hospital	21 (10.3)
Baghiat allah hospital	20 (9.8)

Variables	Without disorder	With disorder	P value
Gender
Male	99 (76.7)	47 (62.7)	0.02
Female	30 (23.3)	28 (38.3)	0.02
Marital status
Married	92 (71.3)	57 (76)	0.2
Single	37 (28.7)	18 (24)	0.2
Work hours/month
<100	10 (7.8)	7 (9.3)	0.6
100-200	13 (10.1)	4 (5.3)
200-300	55 (42.6)	35 (46.7)
>300	51 (39.5)	29 (38.7)
Work experience (years)
<10	40 (31)	40 (53.4)	0.3
10-15	44 (34.1)	19 (25.3)
15-20	34 (26.4)	10 (13.3)
>20	11 (8.5)	6 (8.0)
Degree of practicing emergency medicine (EM)
PGY1	34 (26.4)	17 (22.7)	0.2
PGY2	33 (25.6)	23 (30.7)
PGY3	30 (23.3)	24 (32)
EM attending	32 (24.8)	11 (14.7)
Work place
Dr. Shariati and Imam Khomeini hospitals	48 (37.2)	29 (38.7)	0.8
Hazrat Rasul and Sina hospitals	25 (19.4)	13 (17.3)
Imam Hussein and Haft-Tir hospitals	28 (21.7)	20 (26.7)
Besat hospital	15 (11.6)	6 (8)
Baghiat allah hospital	13 (10.1)	7 (9.3)

Variable	Somatization symptoms	Anxiety and sleep disorder	Social dysfunction	Depression	Total
Gender
Male	4.3±3.1	5.5±4.0	7.2±3.1	2.6±3.8	20.6±10.2
Female	6.6±4.0	4.5±6.6	3.5±8.8	3.1±3.7	24.1±11.3
P value	0.006	0.3	0.09	0.7	0.04
Marital status
Single	4.9±3.2	5.4±4.1	7.4±3.1	3.2±2.2	20.1±11.3
Married	4.9±3.6	6.0±4.2	3.4±7.7	2.9±3.9	21.7±13.2
P value	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.08	0.07
Work hours/month
100	5.1±3.9	5.4±3.3	7.5±3.5	3.5±3.9	21.7±13.0
100-200	4.5±2.8	4.9±3.7	6.7±1.6	2.4±3.9	18.6±10.0
200-300	5.1±3.8	5.8±4.3	7.3±3.3	2.5±3.5	21.3±12.9
>300	4.8±3.3	6.1±4.2	7.7±3.5	3.0±4.0	21.7±13.1
P value	0.9	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.8
Work experience (years)
<10	5.2±3.6	6.2±4.5	3.3±7.7	3.2±4.1	33.4±13.6
10-15	5.0±3.6	5.7±3.8	8.0±3.4	2.8±2.2	21.1±11.2
15-20	4.5±3.5	5.2±4.1	6.9±3.0	3.3±2.2	18.9±11.9
>20	4.5±3.2	6.0±4.3	7.9±3.6	4.0±5.4	22.5±14.9
P value	0.6	0.6	0.3	0.1	0.5
Mental health problem history within a month ago
No	4.5±3.2	5.8±4.2	7.5±3.2	2.5±3.5	20.7±12.3
Yes	7.1±4.2	6.4±3.7	8.4±4.0	5.1±5.2	27.1±15.3
P value	0.05	0.5	0.1	0. 002	0.02
Shift hours
12	5.1±3.6	6.1±4.0	3.4±7.7	2.8±3.4	21.9±12.0
8	4.7±3.4	5.7±3.4	7.5±3.2	2.4±3.6	18.6±12.0
P value	0.4	0.4	0.4	0. 8	0.9
Work place
Dr. Shariati and Imam Khomeini hospitals	5.0±3.7	5.7±4.5	7.6±3.3	3.2±4.2	21.7±13.9
Hazrat Rasul and Sina hospitals	4.2±2.8	5.5±3.7	7.4±3.0	1.8±3.0	19.0±10.3
Imam Hussein and Haft-Tir hospitals	5.8±3.6	6.8±4.0	8.5±3.4	3.0±3.5	24.3±12.4
Besat hospital	4.2±3.3	5.3±4.0	7.1±3.2	2.3±3.3	19.1±11.7
Baghiat allah hospital	4.4±3.6	4.8±3.7	6.7±3.3	2.8±4.2	18.8±13.0
P value	0.1	0.3	0.2	0.4	0.2