To assess stress and satisfaction related to HIV medical work and its impac
t on psychological wellbeing, a cross-sectional study was undertaken among
the population of doctors caring for HIV/AIDS patients in French hospitals.
They were sent a questionnaire on demographic and professional characteris
tics along with three additional scales: the Consultants Mental Health Ques
tionnaire with three components-stress, satisfaction and responses to job s
tress; the Maslach Burnout Inventory; and the GHQ-12 (General Health Questi
onnaire). A total of 670 physicians responded anonymously (65.4% participat
ion). For 45% of respondents, HIV/AIDS represented less than 25% of their a
ctivity. Three dimensions were extracted by multivariate analysis from the
stress scale (overload, social relationships at work, patients/family distr
ess) and four dimensions from the satisfaction scale (work content, patient
s/family, peer recognition, work environment). Length of time working in HI
V/AIDS, and proportion of clinical work in HIV/AIDS were not related to eit
her stress or satisfaction. Only participation in NGOs increased the level
of stress. Stress was not related to time spent in clinical work, neither t
o HIV work. Satisfaction derived from work decreases with time in direct co
ntact with patients and is mainly related to the position in hospital. Elev
en per cent sought help from professionals for psychological problems. Stre
ss derived from patients suffering was not related to any psychological out
comes. Work overload and stress derived from social relationships at work a
re the main predictors of psychological distress, emotional exhaustion and
depersonalization, while the moderator effect of satisfaction is weak. In t
he late nineties, the amount of HIV work did not appear as a specific featu
re of hospital medical work.