Evaluation of the Relationship between Social Desirability and Minor Psychiatric Disorders among Nurses in Southern Iran: A Robust Regression Approach

BACKGROUND: Social desirability may affect different aspects of people’s quality of life. One of the impressive dimensions of quality of life is mental health. The prevalence of Minor Psychiatric Disorders (MPD) among health care workers is higher than other health workers. This article aims at evaluating the relationship between social desirability and MPD among nurses in southern Iran. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 765 nurses who had been employed in hospitals in the southern provinces of Iran. The 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (MC-SDS) were used for evaluating the MPD and social desirability in nurses, respectively. The Robust Regression was used to determine any quantified relationship between social desirability and the level of MPD with adjusted age, gender, work experience, marital status, and level of education. RESULT: The mean scores of GHQ-12 and MC-SDS were 13.02±5.64 (out of 36) and 20.17±4.76 (out of 33), respectively. The result of Robust Regression indicated that gender and social desirability were statistically significant in affecting MPD. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of MPD in female nurses was higher than males. Nurses with higher social desirability scores had the tendency to report lower levels of MPD.