Zainab A Taraif*, Jassim U Ali and Mutee A Al- Rahman
Background: Emergency physicians (EPs) are at risk of developing mental and physical conditions due to the nature of their stressful work. There is limited data on the general health of EPs, thus this study aims to study the health status of EPs at Salmaniya Medical Complex (SMC) which provides emergency services in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Methods: A cross-sectional study investigating a total of 78 EPs working at SMC using an electronic survey, which included physicians’ demographic data, medical characteristics, and conditions within the last 5 years.
Results: The survey had a response percentage of 96.7% (n = 58). Forty-eight (48.3%) percent of EPs considered themselves in good health. Also, 72.4% of EPs have had at least one medical condition, and 43.1%, had more than one medical condition. In the past five years, EPs suffered mostly from burnout (43.1%), anxiety (24.1%), and depression (17.2%). With regards to physical medical conditions, the prevalence of dyslipidemia (13.8%), obesity (13.8%), diabetes (12.1%), and hypertension (12.1%) were the highest. More than half of EPs (77.6%) did not have a family physician or GP for themselves. Only 15.5% and 10.3% have consulted their family physician/GP and psychiatrist respectively in the past 12 months.
Conclusion: In summary though most EPs deemed themselves to be in a state of good health, a substantial proportion suffered from at least one medical condition, mostly psychiatric.
Published Date: 2024-05-30; Received Date: 2024-05-01
