Study of mental health status and its related factors among high school teachers in cities of Sanandaj and Bijar

Considering close relationship of the teachers with students and their role in promotion of mental health, recognizing children at risk of psychological disorders and referring them to obtain specialized supports, the survey of mental health among teachers seems necessary. Therefore, this study was preformed to evaluate mental health status and its related factors among high school teachers in cities of Sannandaj and Bijar. This was a cross sectional study. Sample size included 1391 individuals and sampling method was census. After referring to schools, explaining the goal of the study to the teachers, and taking their consent to participate in our survey, data were completed and gathered based on the standard questionnaire of general health (GHQ28) and a researcher-made questionnaire. Finally 60% of the subjects took part in this study. Some of the questionnaires were incomplete and only 710 teachers completed the study. Collected data were processed with SPSS software and analyzed by means of chi-square test. The prevalence of lack of mental health among the subjects was 33.5% on the whole (34% in Sannandaj and 32.9% in Bijar). Also, the rates of lack of mental health among male and female subjects were 34.7 and 32.1 respectively. Among the factors influencing mental health only the number of family members showed a significant relation with lack of mental health, most prevalent in families with 2 members (53.2%) and least prevalent in families with 4 members (27.7%). Considering high prevalence of lack of mental health among teachers in this study, it seems necessary to plan extended studies in this field all over the province in the future and take interventional measures to provide more appropriate life status with professional contentedness and security for the teachers, solve their problems and recognize their occupational stressful factors.