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Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the mental workload level of physicians in outpatient practice since the normalization of prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and explore the subtypes of physicians regarding their mental workload. Methods: A cross-sectional...

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Autores principales: Li, Dehe, Hu, Yinhuan, Chen, Hao, Zhu, Ximin, Wu, Xiaoyue, Li, Jiayi, Zhang, Zemiao, Liu, Sha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8653799/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34900919
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.779262
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author Li, Dehe
Hu, Yinhuan
Chen, Hao
Zhu, Ximin
Wu, Xiaoyue
Li, Jiayi
Zhang, Zemiao
Liu, Sha
author_facet Li, Dehe
Hu, Yinhuan
Chen, Hao
Zhu, Ximin
Wu, Xiaoyue
Li, Jiayi
Zhang, Zemiao
Liu, Sha
author_sort Li, Dehe
collection PubMed
description Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the mental workload level of physicians in outpatient practice since the normalization of prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and explore the subtypes of physicians regarding their mental workload. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 1,934 physicians primarily in 24 hospitals in 6 provinces in Eastern, Central, and Western China was conducted from November 2020 to February 2021. A latent profile analysis was performed to identify clusters based on the six subscales of the Chinese version of physician mental workload scale developed by our research team. Chi-square tests were performed to explore the differences in demographic characteristics of the subtypes among the subgroups, and multinomial logistic regression analysis was further conducted to identify the determinants of the subtypes of physicians. Results: Overall, the participating physicians reported high levels of task load but with high self-assessed performance (68.01 ± 14.25) while performing communication work tasks characterized by direct patient interaction in outpatient clinics. About 33.8% of the participating physicians were identified as “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype, compared to 49.7% “medium workload and medium self-assessment” subtype and 16.4% “low workload and low self-assessment” subtype. Physicians in “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype had the highest mean mental workload score. Physicians who were female, younger, married, worse health status, those who had lower educational level and an average monthly income of 5,001–10,000 RMB, those who worked in tertiary A hospitals, more hours per week and more than 40 h per week in outpatient clinics, and those who saw more outpatients per day, and spent more time per patient but with higher outpatient satisfaction were more likely to belong to “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype. Conclusion: Our findings can help provide a solid foundation for developing targeted interventions for individual differences across physicians regarding their mental workload. We suggest the hospital managers should pay more attention to those physicians with characteristics of the “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype and strengthen the management of the workload of this subtype of physicians to reduce the risks of their mental health, and to maintain their high work performance in outpatient clinics.
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spelling pubmed-86537992021-12-09 Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis Li, Dehe Hu, Yinhuan Chen, Hao Zhu, Ximin Wu, Xiaoyue Li, Jiayi Zhang, Zemiao Liu, Sha Front Public Health Public Health Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the mental workload level of physicians in outpatient practice since the normalization of prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and explore the subtypes of physicians regarding their mental workload. Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 1,934 physicians primarily in 24 hospitals in 6 provinces in Eastern, Central, and Western China was conducted from November 2020 to February 2021. A latent profile analysis was performed to identify clusters based on the six subscales of the Chinese version of physician mental workload scale developed by our research team. Chi-square tests were performed to explore the differences in demographic characteristics of the subtypes among the subgroups, and multinomial logistic regression analysis was further conducted to identify the determinants of the subtypes of physicians. Results: Overall, the participating physicians reported high levels of task load but with high self-assessed performance (68.01 ± 14.25) while performing communication work tasks characterized by direct patient interaction in outpatient clinics. About 33.8% of the participating physicians were identified as “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype, compared to 49.7% “medium workload and medium self-assessment” subtype and 16.4% “low workload and low self-assessment” subtype. Physicians in “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype had the highest mean mental workload score. Physicians who were female, younger, married, worse health status, those who had lower educational level and an average monthly income of 5,001–10,000 RMB, those who worked in tertiary A hospitals, more hours per week and more than 40 h per week in outpatient clinics, and those who saw more outpatients per day, and spent more time per patient but with higher outpatient satisfaction were more likely to belong to “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype. Conclusion: Our findings can help provide a solid foundation for developing targeted interventions for individual differences across physicians regarding their mental workload. We suggest the hospital managers should pay more attention to those physicians with characteristics of the “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype and strengthen the management of the workload of this subtype of physicians to reduce the risks of their mental health, and to maintain their high work performance in outpatient clinics. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-24 /pmc/articles/PMC8653799/ /pubmed/34900919 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.779262 Text en Copyright © 2021 Li, Hu, Chen, Zhu, Wu, Li, Zhang and Liu. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Li, Dehe
Hu, Yinhuan
Chen, Hao
Zhu, Ximin
Wu, Xiaoyue
Li, Jiayi
Zhang, Zemiao
Liu, Sha
Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis
title Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis
title_full Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis
title_fullStr Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis
title_full_unstemmed Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis
title_short Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis
title_sort identifying the subtypes and characteristics of mental workload among chinese physicians in outpatient practice: a latent profile analysis
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8653799/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34900919
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.779262
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