Collaboration among Danish dentists in private general practices

Perceived social support is a central concept in classical stress models and is known to be important to health. Aim The aim of this study was to investigate to what extent Danish general dental practitioners support each other, in relation to background factors. Methods The study was a cross-sectional survey with a postal questionnaire sent to 300 dentists who were randomly selected members of the Danish Dental Association. Response rate was 80% after one reminder. Factor analyses of items describing collaboration among colleagues were performed. The extracted support factors were used as outcome variables in multiple regression analyses with background factors like age, gender, and work characteristics as independent variables. Results Two factors were extracted describing perceived support and were interpreted as emotional and practical support. The regression analyses with support as dependent variables gave the following main results (Model 1: R2=0.34; F=13.53 8/184; p≤0.000; Model 2: R2=0.24; F=8.50 8/184; p≤0.000): • Dentists from solo practices perceived significantly less emotional and practical support than dentists working in bigger units (p=0.002; p= 0.001); • The more time dentists spent with colleagues outside the clinical sphere, the more emotional support was perceived (p≤0.000). A parallel relation, but weaker was found for practical support (p=0.041); • Male dentists reported significantly less emotional support than their female colleagues (p=0.004). A similar gender difference was not found for practical support (p=0.843). • Being single in private life was associated with less perception of practical support compared to married dentists (p=0.044). Conclusion The study underlines the importance of structural and cultural conditions in work environment for the perception of social support from colleagues. Acknowledgements The study was financially supported by Telia and PFA