Psychological stress among hospital doctors caring for HIV patients in thelate nineties

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.