Anxiety and depression among the medical staff of a children's hospital / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the prevalence of anxiety and depression among the medical staff of a children's hospital, and to understand their relationship with age, gender, educational background, family income, family harmony, position, marital status, experience, title, work pressure, weekly working hours, chronic diseases and stressful events.Methods The medical staff of a children's hospital were evaluated using Zung's self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS).The scores were correlated with age, gender, educational background, family income, family harmony, position, marriage, working years, title, work pressure, weekly working hours, chronic diseases, and stressful events data collected about the same respondents.Results There were 320 respondents suffering from anxiety disorders and 392 experiencing depression among the 677 medical staff surveyed.There were 288 who suffered from anxiety associated with depression.There was a significant difference between the males and the females.Marital status, family harmony, chronic disease and stress events were all significant predictors of anxiety or depression.A univariate analysis showed that neither education nor family income had significant predictive power, but age, professional title,working years, working pressure and working in different departments were all significant predictors.Medical staff with different weekly working hours showed significantly different average levels of anxiety, but position had no such effect.Position was, though, significantly correlated with depression score, while weekly working hours were not.Multivariable logistic regression models showed that educational background, working pressure, family harmony, chronic disease and stressful events were all significant predictors of anxiety.Working pressure, family harmony and chronic disease were related to depression.Conclusion Significant anxiety and depression were observed among the medical staff of this children's hospital.Working pressure, family harmony and chronic disease are strong predictors of anxiety and depression.