IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0176658.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prevalence of chronic stress in general practitioners and practice assistants: Personal, practice and regional characteristics

Author

Listed:
  • Anja Viehmann
  • Christine Kersting
  • Anika Thielmann
  • Birgitta Weltermann

Abstract

Background: The majority of studies investigating stress in primary care have focused either on general practitioners (GPs) or practice assistants (PAs), but did not measure stress on a practice level. We analyzed the prevalence of chronic stress for both professional groups and on a practice level and investigated personal, practice, and regional characteristics. Methods: Chronic stress was measured in GPs and PAs from 136 German practices using the standardized, self-administered TICS-SSCS questionnaire (12 items). Based on a sum-score, participants per professional group were categorized as having low or high strain due to chronic stress (≤ 25th and ≥ 75th percentile of the study population´s distribution, respectively). For a cluster-level analysis, the mean of all practice means was used to categorize low- and high-stress practices. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated using ANOVA. Prevalence Ratios (PR) were used to compare low versus high strain due to stress, stratified for personal, practice and regional characteristics. Results: The response rate was 74.1% (n = 137/185). Data from 214 GPs (34.1% female), 500 PAs (99.4% female), and 50 PAs in training (98.0% female) were analyzed. Chronic stress was highest in female GPs (median 19, IQR (interquartile range) 11.5), followed by PAs (16, IQR 12.25) and male GPs (15, IQR 10). On a practice level, 26.3% of the practice personnel reported a high stress level. We observed an overall ICC of 0.25, with higher ICCs when stratifying by professional group (PAs: ICC 0.36, GPs in group practices: ICC 0.51). High chronic stress was observed as the number of working hours per week increased (GPs: PR 2.03, 95% CI 1.16–3.56; PAs: PR 2.02, 95% CI 1.22–3.35). There were no differences for practice type (solo/group) and the various regional characteristics. Conclusion: Personal and practice characteristics were associated with chronic stress in GPs, PAs, and on a practice level. The high ICCs indicate a need for stress-reduction strategies geared at both professions on a practice level.

Suggested Citation

  • Anja Viehmann & Christine Kersting & Anika Thielmann & Birgitta Weltermann, 2017. "Prevalence of chronic stress in general practitioners and practice assistants: Personal, practice and regional characteristics," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(5), pages 1-13, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0176658
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176658
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0176658&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0176658?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jessica Scharf & Patricia Vu-Eickmann & Jian Li & Andreas Müller & Peter Angerer & Adrian Loerbroks, 2019. "Work-Related Intervention Needs and Potential Occupational Outcomes among Medical Assistants: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Annegret Dreher & Mirjam Theune & Christine Kersting & Franziska Geiser & Birgitta Weltermann, 2019. "Prevalence of burnout among German general practitioners: Comparison of physicians working in solo and group practices," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(2), pages 1-13, February.
    3. Jessica Scharf & Patricia Vu-Eickmann & Peter Angerer & Andreas Müller & Jürgen in der Schmitten & Adrian Loerbroks, 2022. "Work-Related Intervention Needs of Medical Assistants and How to Potentially Address Them according to Supervising General Practitioners: A Qualitative Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-17, January.
    4. Tina Vilovic & Josko Bozic & Marino Vilovic & Doris Rusic & Sanja Zuzic Furlan & Marko Rada & Marion Tomicic, 2021. "Family Physicians’ Standpoint and Mental Health Assessment in the Light of COVID-19 Pandemic—A Nationwide Survey Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Juan Carlos Verdes-Montenegro-Atalaya & Luis Ángel Pérula-de Torres & Norberto Lietor-Villajos & Cruz Bartolomé-Moreno & Herminia Moreno-Martos & Luis Alberto Rodríguez & Teresa Grande-Grande & Rocío , 2021. "Effectiveness of a Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Standard Training Program versus an Abbreviated Training Program on Stress in Tutors and Resident Intern Specialists of Family and Community Medicine," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-17, September.
    6. Adrian Loerbroks & Patricia Vu-Eickmann & Annegret Dreher & Viola Mambrey & Jessica Scharf & Peter Angerer, 2022. "The Relationship of Medical Assistants’ Work Engagement with Their Concerns of Having Made an Important Medical Error: A Cross-Sectional Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-9, May.
    7. Lukas Degen & Karen Linden & Tanja Seifried-Dübon & Brigitte Werners & Matthias Grot & Esther Rind & Claudia Pieper & Anna-Lisa Eilerts & Verena Schroeder & Stefanie Kasten & Manuela Schmidt & Julian , 2021. "Job Satisfaction and Chronic Stress of General Practitioners and Their Teams: Baseline Data of a Cluster-Randomised Trial (IMPROVE job )," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-13, September.
    8. Viola Mambrey & Patricia Vu-Eickmann & Peter Angerer & Adrian Loerbroks, 2021. "Associations between Psychosocial Working Conditions and Quality of Care (i.e., Slips and Lapses, and Perceived Social Interactions with Patients)—A Cross-Sectional Study among Medical Assistants," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(18), pages 1-15, September.
    9. Matthias Grot & Simon Kugai & Lukas Degen & Isabel Wiemer & Brigitte Werners & Birgitta M. Weltermann, 2023. "Small Changes in Patient Arrival and Consultation Times Have Large Effects on Patients’ Waiting Times: Simulation Analyses for Primary Care," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-11, January.
    10. Arezoo Bozorgmehr & Anika Thielmann & Birgitta Weltermann, 2021. "Chronic stress in practice assistants: An analytic approach comparing four machine learning classifiers with a standard logistic regression model," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(5), pages 1-15, May.
    11. Elena Tsarouha & Christine Preiser & Birgitta Weltermann & Florian Junne & Tanja Seifried-Dübon & Felicitas Stuber & Sigrid Hartmann & Andrea Wittich & Monika A. Rieger & Esther Rind, 2020. "Work-Related Psychosocial Demands and Resources in General Practice Teams in Germany. A Team-Based Ethnography," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-19, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0176658. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.