Associations of the Quality of Work Life and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress in the Employees of Healthcare Systems

Introduction: Human resources are an important asset to any organization, and it is essential to preserve their health in order to achieve organizational goals. The present study aimed to investigate the associations between the quality of work life (QWL) and depression, anxiety, and stress in the employees in the healthcare system of Islamabad-e-Gharb Health Care Network, Iran. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 158 healthcare network employees using the census method. Data were collected using Walton’s quality of work life evaluation and depression, anxiety, and stress scale (DASS). Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s correlation-coefficient, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis test. Results:Mean and standard deviation of QWL, depression, stress, and anxiety were 80.45±17.70, 4.9±4.1, 6.34±4.2, and 3.7±3, respectively. Significant negative correlations were observed between QWL and depression (r=-0.255; P=0.001), anxiety (r=-0.260; P=0.001), and stress (r=-0.242; P=0.002). Each of depression, stress, and anxiety had individually no significant correlation with age, work experience, number of child, gender, work pattern, second job and level of education (P> 0.05). However, the relationship between depression and marital status was significant such that depression is found higher among single persons (P= 0.026). As was the correlation between residential status and stress (P=0.03) in which the stress was higher in tenants compared with residence owners. It also appeared that having a refractory patient at home has significantly associated with stress (P=0.027) and anxiety (P=0.045). Conclusion: According to the results, improving the QWL is essential to mitigating the rates of depression, anxiety, and stress in healthcare providers.

Keywords:

Anxiety , Depression , Employees of healthcare system , Quality of work life , stress