%0 Journal Article
%T Self-rated health of primary care house officers and its relationship to psychological and spiritual well-being
%A Michael S Yi
%A Joseph M Mrus
%A Caroline V Mueller
%A Sara E Luckhaupt
%A Amy H Peterman
%A Christina M Puchalski
%A Joel Tsevat
%J BMC Medical Education
%D 2007
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1472-6920-7-9
%X A questionnaire was administered to house officers in 4 residency programs at a large Midwestern medical center. Self-rated health was determined by using a health rating scale (ranging from 0 = death to 100 = perfect health) and a Likert scale (ranging from "poor" health to "excellent" health). Independent variables included demographics, residency program type, post-graduate year level, current rotation, depressive symptoms, religious affiliation, religiosity, religious coping, and spirituality.We collected data from 227 subjects (92% response rate). The overall mean (SD) health rating score was 87 (10; range, 40¨C100), with only 4 (2%) subjects reporting a score of 100; on the Likert scale, only 88 (39%) reported excellent health. Lower health rating scores were significantly associated (P < 0.05) with internal medicine residency program, post-graduate year level, depressive symptoms, and poorer spiritual well-being. In multivariable analyses, lower health rating scores were associated with internal medicine residency program, depressive symptoms, and poorer spiritual well-being.Residents' self-rated health was poorer than might be expected in a cohort of relatively young physicians and was related to program type, depressive symptoms, and spiritual well-being. Future studies should examine whether treating depressive symptoms and attending to spiritual needs can improve the overall health and well-being of primary care house officers.Although physicians generally undergo residency training when they are in their physical prime, residency is physically and emotionally demanding. [1-17] A number of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies over the past decades have examined the negative impact of residency training on fatigue level, [1,14,16,17] stress, [1-13,15] and even physiologic measures (e.g., blood pressure and heart rate) [2] in resident physicians. In a recent review, levels of burnout among house officers were found to be high, [18] with the potential to
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6920/7/9