Influence of Work-Related Variables on Quality of Life of Anesthesiologists in the City of João Pessoa

SummaryBackground and objectivesAnesthesiologists work under great pressure because they are dealing with disease, pain, suffering, and death. Exposure of these professionals to the effects of fatigue and physical, chemical, and biological factors can cause physical and psychological disorders. The objective of the present study was to understand the influences of work-related variables on anesthesiologists’ quality of life in the city of João Pessoa.MethodsThis is a descriptive, transversal study with a quantitative approach, with 83 physicians who answered a generic questionnaire proposed by the World Health Organization to evaluate quality of life (QOL). Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and mean comparison tests. The level of significance adopted for analyses was 5%.ResultsAnalysis demonstrated that work-related variables, i.e., the total hours of the weekly on-call schedule, working hours, sleep patterns after shifts and at shift intervals, and physical activity are all correlated with QOL. A statistically significant difference was seen between the domains of QOL scale and the number of working hours. On the other hand, monthly income influences QOL (p < 0.05) only in the environmental domain.ConclusionsIt was observed that work-related variables had a significant correlation with QOL. In addition to expressive statistical difference between the domains of QOL scale and the number of working hours, the same divergence was also observed regarding the environmental domain and monthly income