The effect of mobbing on depressive symptoms' incidence among resident doctors in a medical faculty: A cohort study

Depressive disorders are one of the important public health problems. It is also common among physicians because of hard education and difficult work conditions. One of the important risk factors for depression is mobbing, which is very frequent among health care workers. Residents are also at risk of both depression and mobbing. The aim of this study is to evaluate one-year incidence of depressive symptoms among the residents who participated in the study named 'The effect of mobbing on depressive symptoms among resident doctors in a medical faculty' and its association with mobbing. One hundred and two doctors paticipated in this cohort study(response rate, 63.0%). The dependent variable of the study was depressive symptoms evaluated by Beck Depression Inventory. Mobbing was the main independent variable and measured by the Turkish version of Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror at the first study. 'Perception of mobbing' and 'the change of perception in one year' were also evaluated.The relationship between independent and dependent variables was evaluated with chi-square test. The mean value of depressive symptoms was 6.2±6.1 and the median was 4.5(0-25). The incidence of depressive symptoms was 8.8%.The risk of depression was higher among the residents with increased perception of mobbing in the past year(p=0.003, RR=8.3, CI=2.69-25.41). Mobbing should be evaluated as an occupational health and safety issue that needs to be determined and prevented.