High demand, low control, and impaired general health: working conditions in a sample of Swedish general practitioners

This cross-sectional survey of 1,004 Swedish general practitioners (GPs) ag ed 32-64 years analyses the extent to which low control, high work demand, and other work-related conditions are associated with self-rated impaired g eneral health and impaired quality of life among Swedish GPs. The first par t of the questionnaire contained "SF-36 Health Survey", from which we chose five psychosocial multi-item scales as dependent variables. The second par t of the questionnaire had questions about working conditions from "The Swe dish Survey of Living Conditions". Unconditional logistic regression was us ed. Female and male GPs with high job strain, i.e. low control and high wor k demand, exhibited a more than three-fold increased risk of impaired gener al health compared with those with medium job strain. Low job strain among male GPs was associated with a low risk of impaired health. The finding of significant associations between psychosocial working conditions and impair ed general health and impaired, quality of life in GPs in 1996 highlights t he need to improve working conditions in Swedish primary healthcare, for ex ample, by reducing number of inhabitants per full-time GP to 1,500.