Professional Quality of Life in Research Involving Laboratory Animals.

Abstract

Simple SummaryMedical research involving human subjects requires previous results obtained from animal experimentation. A team of animal caretakers, technicians, welfare officers and veterinarians (animal-facility personnel) provide the husbandry and care of animals at many institutions. Researchers, on the other hand, interact with animals only when a specific procedure is being conducted. Working with laboratory animals can bring satisfaction but it can also result in workplace stress. In this study we aimed to investigate the work-related quality of life of biomedical research professionals working with laboratory animals in Spain. Animal-facility personnel showed higher professional-quality-of-life and compassion-satisfaction scores than researchers. Perceived animal stress/pain, human–animal interaction and social support are other factors that influence professional quality of life. By job category, welfare officers/veterinarians and principal investigators reported the highest scores, whereas Ph.D. students reported the lowest, indicating that job category is a contributing factor in professional quality of life. Our study may help in designing future studies or interventions to improve workplace wellbeing of the Spanish population working with laboratory animals.Many workers contribute to the success of animal welfare and study outcomes in biomedical research. However, the professional quality of life (ProQoL) of those who work with laboratory animals has not been explored in Spain. To this end, we adapted the ProQoL scale to the Spanish population working with laboratory animals. Participants were contacted by email and asked to complete an anonymous on-line questionnaire. The study comprised a total of 498 participants, 12.4% welfare officers/veterinarians, 19.5% caretaker/technicians, 13.9% principal investigators, 20.7% investigators, 13.6% research technicians, and 19.9% PhD students. The adapted scale revealed very good reliability and internal validity, providing information about two different subscales, compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. Animal-facility personnel showed higher total ProQoL and compassion-satisfaction scores than researchers; PhD students showed the lowest scores. Thus, our results indicate that job category is a contributing factor in perceived professional quality of life. We observed that compassion satisfaction is negatively associated with the perceived animal stress/pain. Participants reporting poorer compassion satisfaction also reported lower social-support scores. Overall, our ProQoL scale is a useful tool for analyzing the professional quality of life in the Spanish population, and may help to design future interventions to improve workplace wellbeing in Spain and other Spanish-speaking populations.