The Role of Staff-Assessed Care Quality in the Relationship between Job Demands and Stress in Human Service Work: The Example of Dentistry

Işıl Karatuna; Mikaela Owen; Hugo Westerlund; Hanne Berthelsen

doi:10.3390/ijerph191912795

The Role of Staff-Assessed Care Quality in the Relationship between Job Demands and Stress in Human Service Work: The Example of Dentistry

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Oct 6;19(19):12795. doi: 10.3390/ijerph191912795.

Authors

Işıl Karatuna¹, Mikaela Owen², Hugo Westerlund³, Hanne Berthelsen⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Beykoz University, 34805 Istanbul, Turkey.
² Centre for Workplace Excellence, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
³ Department of Psychology, Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁴ Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies (CTA) & the Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, 205 06 Malmö, Sweden.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate staff-assessed care quality at the clinic as a predictor of stress and as a moderator between job demands (quantitative demands and role conflict) and stress among dental professionals as an example of human service workers. Cross-sectional questionnaire data from 1012 dental professionals (i.e., dentists, dental hygienists and dental nurses) working at 99 clinics were analysed by confirmatory factor analysis and a two-level hierarchical linear model. Stress, quantitative demands and role conflict were measured by the Swedish standard version of COPSOQ III and care quality was measured by three proprietary items. The results showed that staff-assessed care quality at the clinic was of importance for the individual workers' experiences of stress. Furthermore, the staff's joint assessment of the care quality at the clinic mitigated the negative effect of role conflict on stress among dental nurses. These results indicate that a high level of staff-assessed care quality at the clinic can contribute to reduced stress in dental professionals.

Keywords: care quality; dentistry; job demands; stress; workplace.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cross-Sectional Studies
Dentistry*
Humans
Job Satisfaction*
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sweden
Workplace

Grants and funding

The study was financed by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE), Grant Number: 2016-00676. The funders had no involvement in the study design, data analysis or the writing of the article.