Abstract
Introduction: Health professionals (HP) are frequently exposed to a high number of hazards at the workplace. Consequently, low ratings for their well-being and satisfaction with health care may adversely affect the quality of health services they provide. This study aimed to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and determine the effects of socio-demographic variables on HRQOL across HP in a tertiary health institution in Nigeria, a low-middle-income economy. Method: This was a cross-sectional survey of 385 HP purposively recruited from different units of Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital (OAUTH), Ile-Ife, Nigeria. All respondents completed the Medical Outcomes Study short-form (SF-36) questionnaire. Also, the socio-demographic information on the respondents was obtained. Descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentages; and inferential statistics of independent t-test and one way ANOVA was used to analyze data. Alpha level was set at p<0.05. Results: Respondents comprised 273 males and 112 females. They scored well above the cut-off point of 50 in most subscales with higher physical (80.95±12.03) than mental (67.58±7.88) component score on SF-36. There were significant differences between gender in favour of male respondents with the highest mean score across each of the age groups, educational and professional qualifications (p<0.01) on most subscales. Conclusion: There are considerable inequalities in HRQOL among HP in this study. These inequalities are gender-biased and favour professionals with post-graduate degree. Findings from this study are comparable to other climes and advocate support for female HP, those on low cadre and higher degree training.
Highlights
Health professionals (HP) are frequently exposed to a high number of hazards at the workplace
Health professionals are a vulnerable group of workers who are frequently exposed to a high number of hazards at the workplace, their health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important factor that determines the quality of health services they provide (Guler and Kuzu, 2009; Tinubu et al, 2010)
Sampling and sampling technique Respondents were purposively recruited from three hospital units of OAUTHC viz: Ife Hospital unit, Wesley Guild Hospital unit, Ilesha; and Urban Comprehensive Health Centre, Eleyele Ile-Ife which were purposively selected being the units with a greater number of HPs
Summary
Health professionals (HP) are frequently exposed to a high number of hazards at the workplace. Several studies on HRQOL in the general population and among health professionals in different settings have been conducted (Müller et al, 2007; Guler and Kuzu, 2009; Mujchin, 2015; Kumar et al, 2018; Barbosa et al, 2018) mainly in the developed system which suggested adverse outcome This concept has not been well documented for HP in the health system of low-and-middle-income countries (LMIC) despite sub-Saharan Africa being known to have the lowest ratings for well-being and the lowest satisfaction with health care (Deaton and Tortora, 2015). Assessing the pattern of HRQOL of health professionals in the LMIC using the Nigerian context, compared with other climes is the motivation for this study
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