Self-Reported Assessment of Health Status and Psychological Condition among Hospital Medical Residents in Iran

Psychological stress and illness among hospital residences have been subject to increasing scientific scrutiny; however very few studies have been published to describe the extent of health status and psychological stresses in residents in different specialties especially in our country that our study was mainly focused on this subject. Methods: The study subjects were medical residents in public hospitals covering 14 different specialties in Tehran in 2007. A self-administered questionnaire elicited information related to socio-demographic profile, specialty, duty hours, sleep quality, physical activity level, number of night shifts per month, mood changes, sense of depression after night shifts, fatigue, use of antidepressant and tranquilizer, and their opinion regarding their health status on a 4-point Likert scale. Results: 66.7% of participants were male with the mean age of 32.9 ± 4.2 years. 62.1% of the residents felt mood changes after nightly shifts that could adversely affect their daily living, quality of work, and social relationships. The overall prevalence of the use of antidepressant drugs was 20.0% which was significantly higher in women than men. Also, 24.4% of them reported consumption of sedative and hypnotic drugs. 15.6% reported complete healthy status while 9.4% reported partial illness. Complete healthy status was more reported among the residents of anesthesiology and pediatrics while illness was more reported by residents in pathology field. Residents’ satisfaction with their status was positively correlated with the year of residency and marriage, while dissatisfaction was more reported in divorced ones as well as in those with higher number of nightly shifts. Conclusion: Notable number of hospital residents in Iran experience significant stressors and emotional and mental health problems. Among all studies factors type of specialty, year of residency, female gender, number of nightly shifts, and single marital status were more important than other factors. Corresponding author.