Stress and coping among consultant physicians working in Saudi Arabia.

BACKGROUND: Exposure to stressful working conditions without adequate stress-coping strategies may lead to stress and even psychiatric morbidity. There are a dearth of studies on stress-coping strategies among consultant physicians in the Arabian Gulf.

OBJECTIVES: Determine stress-coping strategies among consultants in Saudi Arabia and the relationship of strategies to level of stress.

DESIGN: Analytical cross-sectional study.

SETTINGS: Conducted between November 2014 and March 2015 among physician consultants registered at the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Text messages were used to directly ask consultants to complete an online questionnaire.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The 28-item Brief COPE inventory and the Perceived Stress Scale.

SAMPLE SIZE: 582.

RESULTS: The consultants were largely males (71%) and Saudi (56%), and their mean age was 46.9 (7.9) years. Adaptive stress-coping strategies were more frequently used than maladaptive stress-coping strategies (68% versus 49%). Stress levels were positively correlated with maladaptive stress-coping strategies (r=0.41, P less than .001) and negatively correlated with adaptive stress-coping strategies (r=-0.09, P=.026). Religion was the most frequently reported stress-coping strategy (79.6%) while alcohol drinking or substance use was the least frequently reported stress-coping strategy (28.0%). Females used both adaptive and maladaptive stress-coping strategies more than males (P=.002 and P less than .001, respectively). Stress management education/training was positively associated with frequent use of adaptive stress-coping strategies.

CONCLUSIONS: Physician consultants generally cope well with work stressors. Nevertheless, there is still a critical need for stress management programs targeting consultants in order to further improve coping strategies.

LIMITATIONS: The low response rate may negatively impact the validity and the generalizability of the current findings. The cross-sectional study design precluded the finding of any causal association.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: None.