Norhayati Mohd Noor , Mohd Azman Yacob , Aziah Daud , Wan Mohd Zahiruddin Wan Mohammad
Background: Assistant medical officers are the first liners in handling patient in health clinics, hospital accident and emergency units and stress is one of the factors that could affect their quality of work and patient relationship.
Aims and Objectives: To determine the prevalence of stress and its correlation with salivary biomarker among assistant medical officers in Ministry of Health hospitals.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 194 randomly selected assistant medical officers in all Ministry of Health hospitals. The questionnaire was a self-administered questionnaire on sociodemographic data, Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-42 (DASS-42) and Job Content Questionnaires (JCQ). Salivary cortisol level was measured using Expanded Range High Sensitivity Salivary Cortisol Enzyme Immunoassay Kit (Salimetrics LLC, State College, PA, USA).
Results: The prevalence of stress was 13.7% (95% CI: 8.61, 18.79). There was no significant (P=0.393) correlation between salivary cortisol and stress score. The observed Spearman correlation was 0.066 suggest no correlation. Salivary cortisol was significantly higher (P=0.033) among stressed compared to non-stressed assistant medical officers (0.78 versus 0.67 μg/dL respectively)
Conclusions: There was no correlation between salivary cortisol and stress score. However, salivary cortisol was significantly higher among stressed compared to non-stressed assistant medical officers in Ministry of Health hospitals.
