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01-Oct-2020
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Arch Hellen Med, 37(5), September-October 2020, 677-683 ORIGINAL PAPER The mental health of employees in the Alexandras National Primary Health Care network (PEDY) facility Μ.Α. Stamouli,1 C. Natsis,1 D. Latsou,1 J. Pateras,1 V. Nikolopoulou,2 S. Chrysanthopoulos,3 A. Goula1 |
OBJECTIVE Investigation of the level of mental health (MH) of the employees of the Alexandras National Primary Health Care Network (PEDY) centre and the associated demographic factors.
METHOD A quantitative survey was carried out on a sample of 100 health professionals working in the PEDY Alexandras centre, using the standard General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ-28). GHQ-28 is a self-reporting questionnaire that is widely used internationally to detect mild mental disorders in the general population. For the coding and calculation of the overall MH score, the recommended method was followed according to which higher scores indicate a higher probability of a psychological disorder, with a total score of higher than 4 indicating a possible psychological disorder. Statistical analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 25.0.
RESULTS No indication of psychological disorder was detected in the sample of employees of Alexandras PEDY, as a low average level of total MH was recorded: Mean=2.68±3.64, median=1.00, and 80% of the participants had a total score of ≤4, and the total mean MH score was statistically significantly (p<0.05) lower than the cut-off limit of 4. Regarding the influence of demographic factors on the MH of the employees, statistically significant differences were found (p<0.05) in the category "work services" for the depression subscale, and age was significantly correlated (p<0.05) with the subscales of physical symptoms and overall MH. Women and contract employees showed higher scores than men and permanent employees, respectively, but without statistically significant differences. On the depression subscale, the administrative staff scored higher than both the medical and the nursing staff, and the medical staff scored higher than the nursing staff. Finally, age showed moderate negative correlation with both physical symptoms and the overall MH.
CONCLUSIONS The employees of Alexandras PEDY had a low total score for MH, according to GHQ-28, and on all of its subscales, indicating an absence of serious psychological disorder. The findings of this study highlight the need for larger-scale research to increase understanding of the causes of mild mental disorders in healthcare workers, and the factors responsible for their occurrence.
Key words: GHQ-28, Mental disorders, Mental health, Scoring instructions.
