Abstract
BackgroundThis paper is focused on two indicators which may be considered as proxies of individuals’ well-being: self-assessed health and burnout intensity. There is little research relating these concepts with the type of the primary healthcare setting, its urbanization density and the region. The aims of this work are threefold: (i) to find determinant factors of individual health status and burnout, (ii) to find possible differences across different types of health care units, differently urbanized areas, and different administrative regions, and (iii) to verify if there are differences in between GPs and nurses.MethodsData was gathered from an online questionnaire implemented on primary health care. A sample of 9,094 professionals from all 1,212 primary health care settings in Portugal mainland was obtained from an online questionnaire filled from January and April 2018. Statistical analyses include the estimation of two ordered probits, one explaining self-assessed health and the other the burnout.ResultsThe individual drivers for good health and lower levels of burnout, that is, better well-being, are estimated for GPs and nurses. Main findings support that, first, nurses report worst health than GPs, but the latter tend to suffer higher levels of burnout, and also that, 'place' effects arising from the health unit settings and regional location are more significant in GPs than in nurses. However, urbanization density is not significantly associated with health or burnout.ConclusionsA set of policy recommendations are suggested to improve the healthcare workforce well-being, such as improving job satisfaction and income. These policies should be taken at the health care unit level and at the regional administrative level.
Highlights
This paper is focused on two indicators which may be considered as proxies of individuals’ well-being: self-assessed health and burnout intensity
We focused our attention on two indicators, namely, self-assessed health and burnout which may be considered as proxies for individuals’ well-being
Self‐assessed health Concerning self-assessed health (SAH), we found that General practitioner (GP) tended to report higher health status in Family Health Units type B (USF-B) and in Traditional primary health care units (UCSP) units; on the other hand, in Algarve we evidenced higher scores
Summary
This paper is focused on two indicators which may be considered as proxies of individuals’ well-being: self-assessed health and burnout intensity. We take well-being as an umbrella and wide concept that accounts for good physical and mental health and lower burnout intensity These two indicators cause opposite feelings in a person’s well-being, by using the rationale that a good health contributes to a pleasant feeling, while burnout causes an unpleasant effect [10] (APA, 2020). In this way, a good perception of self-health is associated with a good level of well-being [11,12,13], while a high level of burnout is associated with a low level of well-being [14,15,16]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
