Stress, anxiety, work-related burnout among primary health care worker: A community based cross sectional study in Kolar

BACKGROUND: Because of Primary Health care workers most of the national programmes run efficiently at grass root level. Workplace stress is alteration in one's physical or mental state in response to workplaces. Anxiety related to work among them is increasing and also Burnout. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY: To assess stress, anxiety and burnout related to work among ASHA workers and to assess the socio-demographic factors influencing the stress, anxiety and burnout related to work among ASHA workers. METHODOLOGY: This was a community based cross sectional study carried out for a period of 6 months from January 2019 to July 2019 at Kolar, India. Multistage cluster sampling was applied. From the selected 8 PHC all ASHA workers were part of the study. Sample size was calculated based on previous study with effect size of 1.5 from which final sample size was 150. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) before the start of study. Written Informed consent was taken from the study. All data were entered in excel sheet and analyzed using SPSS version 22. RESULTS: 150 ASHA workers were interviewed. 75.5% belonged to Nuclear family, 50.7% belonged to age group of 31-40 years, 86.7% perceived that received payment for the work was low, 60.7% had to spend more than 2 hours for walking for the official work, 72% had work experience less than 10 years and 35.3% had working hours more than 8 hours. 45.3% had mild to moderate anxiety, 9.3% had Moderate Anxiety according to Zung Anxiety scale, 54% had moderate stress according to Cohen's perceived stress scale and 23.3% had personal burnout, 33 (22%) had work-related burnout and 4 (2.7%) had Client related Burnout of Moderate levels according to Copenhagen Burnout Inventory scale. CONCLUSION: Socioeconomic status, Training received before joining work, Type of work, perceptions regarding Work was found to be important factors affecting the mental health. Screening regularly for stress, anxiety and work-related burnout at work place is the need of the hour.