Quality of Life of the Health Care Workers in the Pre-Retirement Period from the Private Sector of the Primary Health Care from the Skopje Region

BACKGROUND: The quality of life (QOL) of the workers in the pre-retirement period is an important line in their functioning, as well as in the process of their preparing for retirement. AIM: To assess the QOL of the health care workers - HCW (doctors and nurses/medical technicians) in the pre-retirement period from the private sector of the Primary Health Care (PHC). MATERIAL AND METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study including 200 HCW in their pre-retirement period from the PHC from the Skopje region divided in two groups. The examined group (EG) included 100 HCW working in the private sector, whereas the control group (CG) consisted of 100 HCW employed in the public sector, matched to EG by age and duration of employment at the actual workplace. The QOL of the examinees was assessed by the World Health Organization Quality of Life - Bref questionnaire (WHOQOL - BREF). RESULTS: Examinees from both group assessed their QOL as good, i.e. there was no significant difference between the mean scores of EG and CG in regard to assessment of their QOL (3.7 vs. 3.6; p = 0.274). Regarding the satisfaction with their health, we found that examinees from EG are significantly more satisfied with their health than the examinees of CG as it was expressed by the obtained mean scores (3.9 vs. 3.6; p = 0.017). The mean scores of the domain assessing physical health and environment did not differ significantly between EG and CG (23.4 vs. 22.9; p = 0.187 and 25.7 vs. 24.9; p = 0.290, respectively). We found significant difference between EG and CG in regard to the mean scores assessing the psychological health (23.1 vs. 21.5; p = 0.003) and social life (11.6 vs. 10.1; p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: HCW from EG evaluated their QOL slightly better and they were more satisfied with their health than HCW from CG. In addition, HCW from EG assessed better their psychological health and social life than HCW from CG, whereas regarding the assessment of the physical health and environment, there was no difference between two groups.