Abstract
BackgroundPhysicians' depression can damage their physical and mental health and can also lead to prescribing errors and reduced quality of health care. Emergency physicians are a potentially high-risk community, but there have been no large-sample studies on the prevalence and predictors of depression among this population.MethodsA nationally representative cross-sectional survey of 15,243 emergency physicians was conducted in 31 provinces across China between July and September 2019. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was performed to identify predictors of depression.ResultsA total of 35.59% of emergency physicians suffered from depression. Emergency physicians who were male (OR=0.91) and older [>37 and ≤43 (OR=0.83) or >43 (OR=0.71)], had high (OR=0.63) or middle (OR=0.70) level income, and participated in physical inactivity (OR=0.85) were not more likely to suffer depression. Meanwhile, those who were unmarried (OR=1.13) and smokers (OR=1.12) had higher education levels [Bachelor’s degree (OR=1.57) or Master’s degree or higher (OR=1.82)], long work tenure [>6 and ≤11 (OR=1.15) or >11;11 (OR=1.19)], poorer health status [fair (OR=1.67) or poor (OR=3.79)] and sleep quality [fair (OR=2.23) or poor (OR=4.94)], a history of hypertension (OR=1.13) and coronary heart disease (OR=1.57) and experienced shift work (OR=1.91) and violence (OR=4.94)].ConclusionNearly one third of emergency physicians in China suffered from depression. Targeted measures should be taken to reduce the prevalence of depression to avoid a decline in health care quality and adversely impact the supply of emergency medical services.
Highlights
Physicians’ depression can damage their physical and mental health and can lead to prescribing errors and reduced quality of health care
The consensus is that physicians are more likely to suffer from depression than the general public [18,19,20,21], most previous studies have focused on depression among surgeons [22], primary health care workers [23], and medical students [24], with few studies focusing on emergency physicians
55.23% of the respondents were in the middle-income and lowerincome groups, more than half estimated their own health to be at the general level, and approximately 40% were from developing regions
Summary
Physicians’ depression can damage their physical and mental health and can lead to prescribing errors and reduced quality of health care. Emergency physicians are a potentially high-risk community, but there have been no large-sample studies on the prevalence and predictors of depression among this population. Chronic work and psychological stress have become hidden dangers to the occurrence of depression among emergency physicians. Previous studies have analysed the prevalence of depression among emergency physicians in the United Kingdom (N=371) [27], the United States (N=763) [28], and Turkey (N=192) [29], but there is still a lack of representative large-sample studies. The results of this study could provide global health care policy-makers and researchers with more accurate reports on the prevalence of depression, which can be a reference for targeted measures to safeguard the psychological health of emergency physicians and ensure the quality of emergency medical services
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