Evaluation of General Health and Mental Health Status of Nurses in Larestan County, 2020

Abstract

Background & aim: Mental health is one of the most important health issues that is of special importance in nurses due to their role in maintaining the life and health of patients. This study aimed to determine the general health and mental health status of nurses. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was performed on 150 nurses in hospitals of Larestan in 2020 by randomly stratified sampling. A self-made demographic information questionnaire, general health questionnaire (GHQ-28), and SCL-90-R questionnaire were used for data collection. In order to analyze the data, central and dispersion indices and independent t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson correlation coefficient were used using statistical software of SPSS-22. Results: The mean age of the studied nurses was 32.7±7.9 years. The results demonstrate that the mean scores of general health and mental health of studied nurses were 60.96±13.2 and 180.2±49.5, respectively. The nurses of the ICU and internal wards had the worst general health and mental health status. The finding indicated that the worst mental health scores in the studied nurses were belonged to somatic disorders and behavioral obsession components. In assessing the prevalence of symptoms of mental health disorders in nurses, the components of physical complaint (74.7%), paranoid behavior (61.3%), anxiety (59.3%) and depression (55.3%) had the highest score. Conclusion: The results showed that the general health and mental health of studied nurses were in an unfavorable situation. Therefore, to improve the level of occupational hygiene of nurses and provide a high quality of health- care services in hospitals, there is a need to pay more attention to general health and mental health of nurses.