Occupational stress and its influencing factors of primary health care workers during COVID-19

Background Since the outbreak of COVID-19, primary health care workers have been facing unprecedented work pressure, and their occupational stress should be taken seriously.

Objective To analyze the occupational stress situation and its influencing factors of primary health care workers in Guangdong Province, and to propose targeted interventions.

Methods Using a multi-stage stratified random sampling method, each prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province was classified into "good", "medium", or "poor" category based on its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2019 released by the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Statistics. In September 2021, four primary health care institutions were randomly selected from each stratum, and a total of 1327 staff members were selected for the study. The Core Occupational Stress Scale (COSS) and a basic information questionnaire designed by the authors were used. Mann-Whitney U test was used to compare the means between two groups, and Kruskal-Walis H test was used to compare the means among multiple groups. The comparison of categorical data was performed by trend χ² test or Pearson χ² test; the analysis of factors influencing occupational stress was performed by dichotomous multiple logistic regression analysis.

Results There were 365 health care workers reporting occupational stress in this survey, and the positive rate of occupational stress was 27.5%. The total occupational stress score in M (P₂₅, P₇₅) and the scores of social support, organization and reward, demand and effort, and control were 45.0 (40.0, 50.0), 20.0 (17.0, 21.0), 14.0 (12.0, 17.0), 12.0 (10.0, 15.0), and 5.0 (4.0, 6.0), respectively. The results of dichotomous multiple logistic regression analysis showed that high education, low income, doctor positions, long working hours in a day, and shift work were associated with the occurrence of reporting occupational stress (P<0.05).

Conclusion Education, average monthly income, job category, daily working hours, and shifts are factors influencing the occurrence of reporting occupational stress in primary health care workers; targeted interventions should be implemented to reduce their occupational stress levels.