Assessment of occupational stressors among dentists

Abstract

Background: The World Health Organization has declared stress in the workplace as the worldwide health epidemic of the 21th century. Almost half of dentists say stress in their job is exceeding their ability to cope and the most stressful aspects of their work are related to regulation and fear of litigation from patients, according to a new large scale study published in this issue of BDJ, 2019. The consequences of dissatisfaction in the workplace are reflected in frequent sick leave, errors at work, professional burnout, job abandonment, reduced satisfaction of the healthcare service recipient, and the reduced quality of mental health in doctors. According to worldwide there are many studies of occupational stress of dentists, but there is no study about this issue in our country. In accordance this above we aimed to conduct this study. Aim: This study was aimed to evaluate occupational stressors among Mongolian dentist. Materials and Methods: This study was comprised 289 dentists. The study sample was selected by purposive sampling model, and we used cross-sectional method. Study questionnaire assessed occupational stressors and stress coping strategies, effects of stress and social demographic characteristics of the responders. SPSS program used for statistical analysis. Results: Out of 289 dentists, 222 (77%) were women and 67 (23%) were men. 60.6% of dentists have specialized qualifications. Among dentists, the highest occupational stressors were lack of human resources, insufÏcient salary and risk of infection. It was found that dentists with advanced qualifications were more stressed by the work environment and other factors (p=0.028). The most common method used by respondents to cope with stress was re-approaching the problem in a positive way (72%). However, depending on professional stress, the most common adverse effect is the decrease in initiative in the workplace (53.9%). Conclusion: Among dentists in Ulaanbaatar city, the highest professional stressors are related to income and time.