Investigating the Level of Happiness and the Associated Job Factors: A Cross-Sectional Study among Hospital Staff

Mental health of the medical staff as care providers has a significant impact on the quality of service delivery. Accordingly, happiness is considered one of the important components of mental health. Considering the importance of mental health for medical staff, especially during COVID19, the present study is designed and carried out with the aim of investigating the level of happiness and associated job factors among hospital staff.

This was a cross-sectional and analytical study conducted on 280 people from the teaching, research and treatment staff of Kowsar hospital in Semnan through census in 2019. To collect data, a checklist including demographic and occupational variables was used along with Oxford Happiness Questionnaire by Hills and Argyle (2002). After that, relevant data were analyzed through SPSS26 software. 

The mean and standard deviation regarding age of the personnel were 53.53 ± 8.09,  62.1% of whom were women. 47.5% were in low status, and only 10% were in high status in terms of happiness score distribution. People in the age group of 51 to 60 (P >0.001), PhD graduates (P<0.001), working doctors (P<0.001), official workers (P=0.008), personnel with fixed work shifts (P <0.001), personnel who do not need to work overtime (P =0.044), people with good interaction with colleagues (P <0.001), and employees with good job satisfaction (P<0.001), had a good or excellent happiness status.

Most of the medical personnel working in the hospital did not have an optimal level of happiness; therefore, it is recommended that authorities design and implement programs to improve the level of happiness by focusing on the related factors.