PERCEIVED SOURCES OF OCCUPATIONAL STRESS IN GENERAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS

Aim To evaluate levels of occupational stress in general dental practi tioners (GDPs) and compare them with those reported by Cooper et al. ( 1987). Design/setting Postal questionnaire in England and Wales. Subje cts A sample of 1007 GDPs was chosen from the Dental Register. Main ou tcome measures 30 separate stressors were scored on a 5-point scale. S ummated scores within time-, job-, income-, staff-and patient-related categories were submitted to analysis of variance by sex, type of prac tice, years since qualification and geographic location. Results 823 q uestionnaires were returned (82%) of which 667 were from practising GD Ps (63% male, 26% female, 1% undetermined) working full-(87%) or part- (13%) time in NHS (61%), private (8%), mixed (26%), or community (5%) practice. ln general, problems associated with time management were th e most stressful. The highest ranked individual stressors were 'runnin g behind schedule' (percentage responding with scores 4 or 5 = 61.9, 9 5% confidence intervals = 58.2-65.6), followed by 'coping with difficu lt or uncooperative patients' (58.2, 54.5-61.9) and the 'working const raints set by the NHS' (57.5, 53.8-61.2). Differences in levels of rep orted stress (P < 0.05) were observed for at least one group category of stressor between practitioners with different types of practice, be tween males and females, by geographical area (north against south) an d by the length of time since qualification. Conclusions The results i ndicate that GDPs now rank factors related to time management as major job stressors, with an apparently dramatic elevation of 'NHS working constraints' to a top-ranking stressor since 1986.