Checking public health of a hospital in the Gilan Province using a questionnaire

Introduction: Public health in modern societies increases motivation and development of people at work, and also, in most cases, most people are dealing with daily life in addition to experience problems with different intensities and are experiencing stress. Some of the problems are transient and some have more permanent role; undoubtedly, peace is the first condition for a healthy psyche and in its shadow it can be reached as a counterbalance to everything else in life and progress. Of course, the purpose of the serenity, calm, and lack of concern is multiple and sometimes crippling. This study aimed to assess the general health of hospital staff in Gilan Province. Methodology: In this cross-sectional study, 57 individuals from different wards were selected in Gilan Province and responded to the questionnaire (General Health Questionnaire [GHQ]). In terms of depression GHQ-28 questionnaire and criteria provided by Noor bala et al. was used as the standard, then their responses were analyzed using SPSS software.^[23] Results: The mean age of those surveyed was 31.5 years, 81% of those surveyed also married, and the rest were single. Based on these criteria, it was found that, 43 (75.4%) of employees, suffered from some degree of depression, and, only 14 (24.6%) did not suffer from depression. Conclusion: The study showed that a high percentage of staffs suffered from depression which indicated the importance of health facilities.

Keywords: Depression, hospital personnel, public health

People job is one of the main reasons for stress in their lives. There is more stress in the jobs which staff contact directly to customers. Job related psychological stresses might endanger one’s health, by creating physical, mental, and behavioural symptoms, provided that exist too much. On the other hand, the existence of these pressures, with the threat of organizational goals, can decrease the individual performance. Health is a fundamental right of every human being and a social purpose that all governments and organizations are obliged to supply health.^[1] Health which has physical, mental, and social dimension is a necessary condition for the individual and social role, and all human beings can only have a complete activity that feels healthy and society knows them healthy. It has been proven that someone who is experiencing health problems will fail in taking on the obligations and requirements of individual, family and community.^[2] One of the most important and influencing factors affecting on individual health is the job, through exposing people to various factors threatened their health. The health of employees in both physical and mental, whether in the workplace, is including issues that the organization has received much attention.^[1] Today, health-care sector due to direct contact with human health is considered as one of the most important fields of sustainable development of human society. Hospital personnel are the most important members of the health-care system that have a great impact on system services.

The health of staffs work hospital including nurses, midwives, operating room staff according to various reasons is at greater risk than other people in the community. These personnel have dimensions of psychological, social, and physical problems, sleep disorders, and biological rhythms.^[3] In contrast to previous studies in the country that examined the public health of nurses, this study has tried that in addition to a public health of nurse examine other the health of hospital jobs.

This research is a descriptive study that has been done in the year 2012 and its study population is hospital staff on Gilan Province. The sampling was random. To data collection, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) was used. GHQ is a questionnaire based self-reporting method which is used for clinical staffs to track those with a mental disorder. The question of the questionnaire is to assess the health status of the individual in the past month and is composed of four subtests that each of them has 7 questions. Questions come together each test in the sequence so that the questions 1–7 related to the physical symptoms, questions 8–14 related to anxiety and insomnia, questions 15–21 related to social functions, and questions 22–28 related to depression. In this study, scoring method has been done based on Likert as: never, the usual, almost more than usual, much more than usual was scored 0–3 respectively. In addition, some questions has been scored for photos. 23 score is the best score in this research method. Those who achieved score 23 or less considered healthy people with no symptoms or health problems and those who earned a score of 24 and above considered as health problems.^[4] Various studies show a high correlation between the results of the 28-question form public in the diagnosis of health disorders that implies the questionnaire has the ability to assess the magnitude of health problems. In Iran, Ebrahimi et al. consider its reliability as 88% that is appropriate.^[5] To conduct this research, after obtaining necessary permissions and explaining the purpose of the study, the researcher gathered information. To analyze the data, SPSS statistical software (version 18) and descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, and standard deviation [SD]) was used.

Totally, 57 persons of different parts of the hospital personnel were investigated [Figure 1]. The mean age of subjects was 31.5 years (SD). Minimum age of the participants was 23 years and maximum 43 years. 89% of those surveyed were female. Furthermore, 81% of those surveyed were married and others were single. In terms of the number of children among 46 people who were married, 21.7% of those were without children, 43.5% had one child, 32.6% have 2 children, and only one person had a child. [Table 1] shows the distribution of different types of jobs being monitored job.

Normality test showed that age and depression score distribution was normal. Between males and females in terms of depression, there was no significant difference (P = 0.27); also, in terms of marital status between single and married, there was no significant difference (P = 0.39). Shift (daily circulation) did not show a significant correlation with depression (P = 0.88). ANOVA does not show significant differences between the studied individuals and a degree of depression (P = 0.19). There is no significant correlation between age and depression score in this study (in terms of depression with a questionnaire P = 0.397).

Social dysfunction that is the aspect of job burnout usually is created due to lack of sources of support and conflict at work. In general, physical and mental health and ability to perform social roles are the characteristics of a healthy person which can be affected by problems at work. The results showed the desperation level of hospital personnel. The results showed the desperation level of hospital personnel. It is so that a high percentage of them (75.4%) are at the different levels of depression. Social dysfunction is the largest scale that leads to depression among the staff. However, the study performed in the Teaching Hospitals of the Nurses revealed that 55.3% lived in unhealthy conditions (Nooryan 2010) and the study carried out in Nepal on staff in hospitals showed a high percentage suffer the severe disorders. The disorder varies in different wards. Of the 57 patients evaluated, 46 patients were married and others were single. There was no significant association with depression in marital status, which is consistent with research by Bigdeli et al.^[6] Nourian et al. in similar research found that single people than married people have lower public health. Many hospital personnel, particularly male nurses because of shortage of recruits, high workload and low wages have forced to give way in a few shifts or second jobs and it is expectedthat the lives and physically exhausted be illness consolation. This is while personnel working in the health-care system in terms of physical disease, sleep disorders, and psychological problems have been reported far more vulnerable than the general population.^[3] In this research, any relationship between the responsibilities of staff (supervisors and supervisor) and lower positions with no mental health was not seen. While the study by Maghsoudi et al. had done on hospital nurses in Rasht, found that nurses head nurses, supervisors, nurses and their successor than ordinary nurses had health problems. In this study, a significant correlation was found between age and depression. The findings of the study, which was coordinated by Asghari et al. in an industry found that in Nepal on hospital personnel had taken place in that country and no significant relationship was observed between age and general health is consistent. However, study showed that there is a negative correlation between general health and age of teachers; this means that general health of people decreases with age. Also, no relationship found between shift work on public health.

According to the findings, mental health in hospital low, despite the fact that the hospitals is new and the workforce is younger than most other medical centers obviously, the efficiency of these forces depends on their general health. Hence, planning to meet the needs of personnel and training classes in various fields is very necessary.

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None

DOI: 10.4103/ATMPH.ATMPH_266_17

[Figure 1]

[Table 1]