Study of rural doctors' social mentality based on relative deprivation theory

Abstract

Objective To analyze rural doctors' social mentality with the theory of relative deprivation. Methods 642 rural doctors from 225 villages of 15 counties in Shandong were selected for a questionnaire survey.The factor analysis method was used to reduce the scale dimension and simplify the scale.Analysis of rural doctors' vertical and horizontal relative deprivation was made based on different reference groups. Results Rural doctors tend to identify themselves with rural teachers and doctors in township hospitals, and 60.0% identify themselves as the low income group.39.9% of them found a higher income, while 33.5% of them found a higher social status.76.3% of them found their social contributions are higher.91.4% of them hold that villagers benefit from the new healthcare reform policies, while 65.9% of them hold themselves as benefiting from such policies.This indicates a low sense of achievement. Conclusions Compared with the reference groups, rural doctors feel an obvious sense of relative deprivation comparing both horizontally and vertically.They hold themselves as underpaid and have little sense of achievement for the policies.In this consideration, the government should increase subsidies to lift pay for rural doctors, and to identify their legitimacy, in order to stabilize these medical workers. Key words: Rural doctors; Mentality; Relative deprivation; Theory