Abstract
BackgroundHealth tourism or treatment tourism is one of threatening fields that causes (added s) increase in prevalence of job stress and illnesses among hospital staff of providing health tourism services (HSPHT). The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of job stress and illnesses among hospitals staff of providing health tourism services in touristic cities as Tehran and Shiraz in Iran.MethodsThis cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was carried out among the staff of 10 hospitals providing health tourism services in cities of Tehran and Shiraz, Iran, in 2019. In these hospitals, 1250 staff were chosen by cluster sampling method from each job task as doctor, nurse, office worker, and paramedical and cleaner worker. Also, 1100 staff working in other general hospitals (non-HSPHTS) were selected as the control sample. Then, the demographic information and prevalence of job stress were gathered by Osipow job stress questionnaire and the illnesses were accumulated by self-reporting questionnaire. Finally, data were analyzed in SPSS 20 software. Chi-square and Pearson’s parametric tests were used in the study.ResultsPrevalence of illnesses among HSPHTS was more than that in general hospitals (Pvalue < 0.05). The most prevalent illnesses were respiratory (11.08%), digestive (9.2%), and cutaneous (9.04%), respectively. Also, the prevalence of job stress among HSPHTS was more than that in general hospitals (Pvalue < 0.05). There was a significant relationship between prevalence of illnesses and job stress among the staff of hospitals and the increase in the number of visited tourists in the hospitals providing health tourism services.ConclusionResults of the study showed that the prevalence of job stress (%33.76) and illnesses (%43.66) among the HSPHTS was respectively 2 and 2.6 times more than that among the staff of general hospitals. Thus, it is necessary to observe sanitary actions and considerations more seriously in these hospitals.
Highlights
Health tourism or treatment tourism is one of threatening fields that causes increase in prevalence of job stress and illnesses among hospital staff of providing health tourism services (HSPHT)
It should be noted that along with the advantages of this field, the adverse effects include transmission and prevalence of contagious infectious diseases [5] and job stress [6] resulted from the high level of responsibility among the staff regarding the quality of services, satisfaction level, and higher health level of tourists [7,8,9]
Cooperation call for research was sent to the administrators of hospitals providing health tourism services in Tehran and Shiraz to explain the purpose of the study and their contribution to the study
Summary
Health tourism or treatment tourism is one of threatening fields that causes (added s) increase in prevalence of job stress and illnesses among hospital staff of providing health tourism services (HSPHT). The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of job stress and illnesses among hospitals staff of providing health tourism services in touristic cities as Tehran and Shiraz in Iran. Health tourism or tourist treatment is one of the fields that can take a significant role in enhancing industrial tourism [1], in which Iran has recently improved [2, 3]. Despite the large number of foreign tourists and health tourism activities in the tourist country of Iran, there are no reports on the prevalence of illnesses and its effects on tourists and health tourism providers [7]
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