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CLINICAL RESEARCH AND METHODSlevel. SPSS 14.0 statistical packagehas been used for the analysis.ResultsA total of 176 questionnaires werecollected from Physicians andGeneral Practitioners from all thePrimary Health Centers. Most wereof 30-45 years of age. There was 1:1ratio of male to female. There were80% non-Qataris in the study. More orless all the participants were marriedand had 5 or more children. Therewere 119 (68%) participants from theGeneral Practitioner community and49 (27.8%) from Physicians whereas8 (4.5) participants didnot mentiontheir discipline. The distribution ofdemographic data has been describedin Table 1.Table 2 described the distribution ofjob satisfaction items. More than 75%of participants from both specialtieswere satisfied with physical workingconditions, colleagues and fellowworkers and working hours. 60-70% satisfaction was for freedomto choose own method of work,variety of jobs and job satisfactionof today in comparison to the past.Below average satisfaction was forrate of pay whereas above averagesatisfaction was for two shifts atwork and appointment system insubspecialty.Table 3 described the stress level atwork in Primary Health Centers forPhysicians and General Practitioners.87.5% were of the opinion thatthere was increased demand frompatients and 80% agreed there wasinsufficient time to do justice withpatients during consultations. 104(59%) participants were of the opinionthey were interrupted by emergencycases during consultation. Out of 176,103 (58.5%) were of the opinion thatthet were not getting sufficient timeto update themselves. There was nodisturbance of family life for 52% ofparticipants in the study.Overall job satisfaction score wasbelow average in the study withmean level 0.36± 0.39. There was nostatistical difference in job satisfactionscore for all the demographicvariables included. The results havebeen displayed in Table 4.Stress level at work was also of thesame level with mean 0.38±0.42.The study suggested that therewas more stress in females thanmales (p =0.001) and more stress inQatari participants than non-Qatariparticipants (p=0.02). Qatari femaleproportion was higher than theQatari males in Health Caregivers(Chi-square= 16.7, p=0.00). Otherdemographic and professionalvariables like age, specialty, numbersof years working in practice andnumber of households in the studydid not have a statistical differenceat stress level. The results have beenshown in Table 5.DiscussionMost of the Caregivers in PHCs werenon-Qatari; a similar proportion wasdescribed in a previous study done in2002 (3) . It may be due to the demandof PHCs services or Qatari CareGivers may have an inferior sotiationin comparison to other specialties.Our data showed a significantnegative association betweenderived job satisfaction score andstress score. The study showed morestress in Qatari Health Care Giversthan non-Qataris in PHCs. It may bedue to more female Qataris workingin PHCs than males. Qatari HealthCaregivers might have householdjobs at home. Our study also showedmore job satisfaction compared topast experience in PHCs Caregivers.It may be due to increases in salary,increases in numbers of doctors, andother facilities in PHCs.More thrust is warranted to updateithe medical education system, asCaregivers are not able to updatethemselves with new developmentsin their fields due to workload.C.L. Cooper (6) , Bonnie Sibbald (7) ,and Barbara (9) showed that jobsatisfaction has increased whereasBruce E. Landon (8) demonstratedjob satisfaction did not changedramatically.Similar results have been describedand suggested regarding demographicand professional variables in studies(1),(2),(4).CONLCUSIONOur study showed that job satisfactionand stress are both are belowaverage. More facilities, incentivesand suitable working conditionsshould be provided to increase jobsatisfaction and to reduce stress.Further, it suggested a large studyon job satisfaction, stress and mentalhealth be undertaken to generalizethe results in the region.References1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8.9.World Health Organization (WHO). Alma Ata 1978Primary Health care. Geneva: WHO, 1978.Ibrahim S Al-Eisa, Manal S Al-Mutar and Huda Kal-Abduljalil. Job Satisfaction of Primary Health CarePhysicians at Capit Health Region, Kuwait. MiddleEast Journal of family medicine 2005, Vol. 3(3): 1-5.Al Mari S.A., Al Taweel A.A. and Elgar F. FactorsInfluencing Job Satisfaction among Primary HealthCare Physicians in Qatar. Qatar Medical Journal2002, Vol.11 (1):15-18.Khalid A. Kalantan, Ahmed A, Al Taweel and HamzaAbdul Ghani: Factors Influencing Job satisfactionamong Primary Healthcare (PHC) Physiciansin Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Special Communication1999: 1-4.Warr P, Cook J and Wall T. Scales for measurementof some work attitudes and of Psychological Wellbeing.J Occupat Psychol 1979 52: 129-148.C.L. Cooper, U. Rout and B. Faragher. Mentalhealth, job satisfaction, and job stress among generalpractitioners. BMJ 1989, 298(6670):366-370.Bonnie Sibbald, Ian Enzer, Cary Cooper, Usha Routand Valerie Sutherland. GP job satisfaction in 1987,1990 and 1998: lesions for the future. Family Practice2000, Vol. 17(5): 364-371.Bruce E. Landon, James Reschovsky and DavidBlumenthal. Changes in career satisfaction amongprimary care and specialist physicians, 1997-2001.JAMA 2003, 289: 442-449.Barbara Ulmer and Mark Harris. Australian GPs aresatisfied with their job: even more so in rural areas.Family Practice 2002 Vol. 19(3):300-303MIDDLE EAST JOURNAL OF FAMILY MEDICINE • VOLUME 6, ISSUE 6 21