Occupational stress and job dissatisfaction with health work

Camila Carvalho De Sousa,Iracema Lua,Mariana Rabelo Gomes,Tânia Maria De Araújo

doi:10.1186/s41155-019-0132-5

Camila Carvalho De Sousa, Iracema Lua + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s41155-019-0132-5

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Abstract

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to evaluate the association between psychosocial aspects at work and dissatisfaction among health workers in five cities in Bahia, Brazil.MethodsThe evaluation was based on different models proposed to measuring occupational stress and possible combinations between them: demand-control model (DCM) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI). We conducted a cross-sectional epidemiological study including 3084 health workers. The analysis considered the association between partial/full/partial (combined) occupational stress models (the variable “exposure”) and job dissatisfaction (the variable “outcome”).ResultsDissatisfaction rate was 26%. Full DCM and ERI models were better than partial ones to investigate job dissatisfaction. After adjustments, the combined models presented more robust measures of prevalence ratio than models evaluated separately (PR 2.93; CI 2.26–3.80).ConclusionsThe combination of models has shown greater capacity to identify situations of job dissatisfaction and provided more potential information to support actions for workers’ health.

Highlights

High levels of occupational stress may occur in several ways among health workers, and job dissatisfaction is one of them (de Oliveira, Silva, Galvão, & Lopes, 2018; Fila, Paik, Griffeth, & Allen, 2014; Hosseinabadi et al, 2018)
Considered as an unpleasant emotional state from worker’s appraisal of his/her job, or because the job is not according to his/her code of values, job dissatisfaction is closely related to psychosocial aspects at work (Ribeiro, Assunção, & Araújo, 2014)
The sample consisted of 3084 health workers, predominantly women (78.2%), young workers up to years old (42.0%), and between and 50 years old (39.5%)

Summary

Introduction

High levels of occupational stress may occur in several ways among health workers, and job dissatisfaction is one of them (de Oliveira, Silva, Galvão, & Lopes, 2018; Fila, Paik, Griffeth, & Allen, 2014; Hosseinabadi et al, 2018). Current characteristics of work in health services, in line with global changes in the world of work, have been associated with several adverse outcomes in the health and quality of life of this professional group (Assunção, 2011). They are inserted in a scenario characterized by increased precariousness of work, reduction of formal work, loss of labor rights, and marked wage inequality between men and women (ILO, 2016, 2017). It has been observed that the adoption of neoliberal policies in the countries of Latin America has favored the instability and insecurity of employment, with high labor exploitation (Machado, Giongo, & Mendes, 2016)

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