Stress among medical doctors working in public hospitals of the Ngaka Modiri Molema district (Mafikeng health region), North West province, South Africa

Most people spend most of their awake hours at work.1 Work may generate emotional, mental and/or physical disturbances in many people, and the quality and nature of people’s experience at work may therefore have major health implications. Demanding or frustrating work or an inability to cope with stressors at work can have various shortand long-term effects.1 These effects can be physical, mental or physiological (e.g. increased blood pressure, cardiovascular diseases), psychological/emotional (e.g. tenseness, anxiety disorders) or behavioural (e.g. alcohol abuse).1 This specific response of the body to all nonspecific demands is commonly called stress.2

ii DECLARATION I, ELIE KIRAGA MUTUNZI, hereby declare that the work on which this research is based is original (except where acknowledgements indicate otherwise) and that neither the whole work nor any part of it has been, is being or is to be submitted for another degree at this or any other university.

SIGNATURE DATE
iii

Methods
A cross-sectional study using a standardized questionnaire was carried out among medical doctors working in 4 hospitals of the Ngaka Modiri Molema (NMM) district, North West Province, from 5th March 2010 to 21 st April 2010.The 12-item GHQ was used to measure the prevalence and the level of stress.The data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS 17.0.A variety of statitistical analyses were applied to the data, including cross-tabulation, analysis of variance (ANOVA).Duncan's post hoc was applied to establish relationship between stress and working conditions.

Results
Of the 67 participants in the study, 89.6% claimed feeling stressed, while 50.7% were found to be objectively stressed.The result also revealed that 26.8% of the participants were highly stressed (morbidly).
Despite the evidence of heavy workload among doctors in NMM district, no significant association was found between levels of stress and working conditions. x

Conclusion:
The prevalence and level of stress among medical doctors working in NMM district are very high and they are much higher than the prevalence and level of stress found amongst General Practitionners in Kwa-Du kuza.
Doctors were all stressed irrespective of their gender, number of patients seen per day and hours worked per week. xi

Table 1 :
This work is dedicated to my late brother, Ndeze Kiraga.Occupations with high stress level…………………………………..................7 I would like to thank the members of the Medunsa Research and Ethics Committee (MREC) under the visionary leadership of Professor G A Ogunbanjo for approving our proposal.I am grateful to all members of staff of the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, University of Limpopo, Medunsa Campus for the immense assistance

Table 10 :
Distribution of participants according to hospitals and overall GHQ score..46

Table 11 :
Distribution of participants according to age group and overall GHQ ….....47