Assessment of Family Doctors Emotional Well-being

Author : Roberta Kiaulakyte, Saule Ivanauskiene, Tadas Ivanauskas, Vytautas Kasiulevicius

Abstract :Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the emotional health of family doctors working in Lithuania and to identify significant correlations between demographic factors and the emotional health of family physicians. Methods: An anonymous survey was conducted from September 2022 to November 2024. The study sample consisted of 491 participants. Family doctors in Lithuania were asked about their emotional health using the PHQ-9 questionnaire. The survey was distributed online. The data was analyzed using Microsoft Excel and IBM SPSS 26.0 software. The differences were considered statistically significant when p value was lower than 0.05. Results: Data analysis revealed that 20.6% of respondents exhibited moderate to severe depression symptoms, indicating the possibility of diagnosing depression. A statistically significant difference in the expression of symptoms (PHQ-9 data) was found among different age groups (p < 0.05). Depression was most commonly diagnosed in the age groups of people who were 40-49 and 30-39 years old. A statistically significant difference was also found between the family doctors workload and PHQ-9 scores (p < 0.05). Family physicians working 1.5 full-time equivalents (FTE) or more have a higher likelihood of being diagnosed with depression. Conclusions: We have found that the age and workload of family physicians are the most significant factors when evaluating their emotional health

Keywords :Emotional health, family doctors, depression, workload, Lithuania, PHQ-9, age factors

Conference Name :International Conference on Family Practice and Medicine (ICFPAM-25)

Conference Place Bucharest, Romania

Conference Date 11th Apr 2025