Impact of Job Satisfaction and Social Support on Job Performance Among Primary Care Providers in Northeast China: A Cross-Sectional Study

BACKGROUND: Primary health care institutions face major challenges in maintaining the accessibility and affordability of health services. This requires primary care providers to change and improve their performance. Therefore, Study on the job performance is conducive to improve the quality of primary health care services and the sense of access of primary care providers.To understand the current status of job performance among primary care providers in Heilongjiang Province, China, and explore the impact of job satisfaction and social support on job performance, further to improve the job performance of primary care providers and ensure the stable development of primary health services. METHODS: A stratified sampling method was adopted to select 1,500 primary care providers from seven cities in Heilongjiang Province, China, using the gross domestic product development level of each city as a basis. A questionnaire survey was conducted (effective response rate was 85.8%) by using sociodemographic factors, job satisfaction scale, social support scale and job performance scale. One-way ANOVA or independent sample t-test was used to analyze the differences of demographic factors on job performance. Pearson correlation analysis was used to measure relationship between job satisfaction, social support and job performance. Hierarchical linear regression was used to analyze the relevant influencing factors associated with job performance among primary care providers. RESULTS: Among the primary care providers who participated in this survey, the mean job performance score was 22.189 (SD = 7.695). The job performance of primary care providers was positively correlated with job satisfaction (r=0.574, p < 0.001), and was also positively correlated with social support (r = 0.534, p < 0.001). Model 3 showed that job satisfaction (β = 0.299, p < 0.001) and social support (β = 0.149, p <0.001) are positive predictors of job performance, respectively. Moreover, the regression relationship explained that 37.6% for the variation of the dependent variable. CONCLUSIONS: The job performance of primary care providers in Heilongjiang province is relatively low. Job satisfaction and social support are the relevant factors affecting the job performance of primary care providers. It is necessary to provide assistance to primary care providers in terms of family, organization, society, policy, etc., to improve their job performance, and to better provide high-quality health services to the grassroots.