Job satisfaction and related factors of occupational physicians working in İzmir

Introduction and Aim: Occupational health services consist of the responsibility of making recommendations on the adaptation of the job according to the health of workers, taking into account the physical and mental health conditions. Job satisfaction is defined as the worker's emotional response to his job. It is stated that this response depends on the experiences of the workers and their expectations shaped by their personal values. Determining the factors affecting the job satisfaction of occupational physicians who are the principal executors and managers of occupational health services and later providing interventions to increase their job satisfaction, may improve the work life of occupational physicians and indirectly increase the quality of the health services in the workplace. The purpose of this study is to determine the level of job satisfaction and related factors of physicians working in İzmir. A secondary aim was to adapt the 2009 revision of five facets of the Job Descriptive Index (JDI), to Turkish. Material and Methods: Five facets (work, pay, supervision, coworkers, job in general) of the Job Descriptive Index, which was updated in 2009, were used in this study. The Turkish adaptation of the parts which had changed according to the 1989 version of the JDI was also conducted. This study consists of two parts: a methodological study including the adaptation of the revision of the JDI into Turkish, and a cross-sectional study on occupational physician's job satisfaction and related factors. Ethics committee approval and permissions to use the scales in the study were obtained. Among workplaces registered to the Aegean Region Chamber of Industry (EBSO), workplaces that could be reached EBSO's website and employing 50 or more workers formed the sample universe of this study. The sample size was calculated as 303 with the universe 885, 50% prevalence, 5% error margin, 95% confidence interval and 10% non-response. Occupational physicians have been reached by contacting the work places in the sample selected systematically. Some of the workplaces selected were working with the same occupational physician. Therefore, it was planned to reach the 206 occupational physicians who were determined to work in these workplaces. After assessing the inclusion and exclusion criteria for workplaces and occupational physicians, 187 (90.8%) occupational physicians working in 276 (91.1%) of the workplaces were formed the study group. The dependent variable of the study was job satisfaction scores of occupational physicians. The independent variables are grouped under two topics: individual factors, environmental and organizational factors. The questions in the questionnaire were asked face–to-face to occupational physicians by the investigator between May 22-October 6, 2017. Student t, Mann-Whitney U, variance analysis, Kruskal Wallis, paired samples t-test and Spearman correlation analysis were used to analyse factors related to job satisfaction score. Cronbach's alpha coefficient, split-half and test-retest methods were used in the reliability analysis of the Turkish adaptation of JDI. "Intention to Leave Scale" and "single item question on overall job satisfaction" were used in the concurrent validity analysis. Explanatory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used for structural validity analyses. Results: The average scores of the JDI facets for occupational physician's were 32.31±12.57 for work, 30.55±16.63 for pay, 39.86±11.19 for supervision, 36.08±13.54 for coworkers and 41.81±9.18 for job in general. Among occupational physicians in the study, 23.0% were women, 84.0% married, 21.9% specialists and 11.2% were owners or partners of the "Common Health and Safety Unit" (OSGB). Among them 7.0% were working full-time, 74.9% were working only in Izmir and 72.2% were working only as an occupational physician. Their mean duration of as a physician was 27.95±9.14 years, and their mean working duration as an occupational physician was 12.78±9.63 years. Physicians working only as an occupational physician, only in Izmir, working full-time as an occupational physician and having his pay fully shown in official transactions had higher average Job in General scores. Years of work as an occupational physician and monthly hours of individual work as an occupational physician showed significant positive correlation with five facets of the JDI. Average score of single item measure of overall job satisfaction for the post-OSGB period of occupational physicians was significantly lower than the pre-OSGB period (p<0,001). Floor and ceiling effects were not found in the facets of JDI. In the reliability analyses of JDI; facets showed strong correlations in the test-retest, internal consistency was high according to the split-half method, Cronbach alpha values were found to be good and excellent. Concurrent validity results were found sufficient for the validity of the Turkish version of JDI. According to the EFA and CFA results, the Turkish-adapted JDI consisted of more dimensions than the original. Conclusion: Finding their occupational health education sufficient, full-time work as an occupational physician, working only as an occupational physician, increase in work years as an occupational physician, increase in individual working hours, decrease in working hours at OSGB, decrease in the number of working places, working only in Izmir, allocating more time to workplace control, not providing occupational health services for less than legal periods, not giving occupational health and safety education for less than legal periods were generally associated with high job satisfaction for occupational physicians working in Izmir. Increase in individual working hours and not providing occupational health services for less than legal periods were significantly associated with high job satisfaction in five facets of the JDI. The Turkish version of the five dimensions of the JDI was reliable among occupational physicians, concurrent validity was sufficient and structural validity of the scale was found to be insufficient. Key Words: occupational health and safety; occupational physician; job satisfaction; job descriptive index; Turkish adaptation