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Meta-Analysis
. 2021 Mar 19;21(1):539.
doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10579-1.

Occupational stress and associated factors among health care professionals in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Bekahegn Girma  1 , Jemberu Nigussie  2 , Alemayehu Molla  3 , Moges Mareg  4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Occupational stress and associated factors among health care professionals in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Bekahegn Girma et al. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

Background: Occupational stress is a global health problem which affects employed personals especially health professionals. The burden of stress is not limited at individual level, but also affects the organizations productivity, the quality of care and country in large. In Ethiopia, little concern is given to this problem and individual studies conducted among health care professionals also showed inconsistent result. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the pooled prevalence of occupational stress and its associated factors among health care professionals in Ethiopia.

Methods: Articles were searched from PubMed, Hinari, PsychInfo, Science direct databases, Google and Google scholar. A total of 10 studies were included in this review and meta-analysis. We used a standardized format for data extraction and STATA software version 13 for analysis. A random effect meta-analysis model was used to determine the pooled prevalence of occupational stress and I2 was used to check heterogeneity. Begg's and Egger's tests were conducted to detect publication bias. Furthermore, sensitivity and subgroup analysis was also conducted. Association was expressed by pooled odd ratio with corresponding 95% CI.

Results: The pooled prevalence of occupational stress was 52.5 [95% CI: (47.03, 57.96)]. The heterogeneity test was I2 = 89.1% & P < 0.001. The result of the publication bias detection (Begg's and Egger's) tests were p = 0.283 and p = 0.369 respectively. Female sex was identified as a significant predictor for occupational stress with a pooled effect of 3.75 [95% CI: (2.58, 5.45)].

Conclusions: Above half of health care professionals had occupational stress. Being female was significantly associated factor in this review and meta-analysis. Therefore, introduction of policies supporting health care professionals well-being at work in Ethiopia are advisable.

Keywords: Ethiopia; Health care professionals; Meta-analysis; Occupational stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart of selected articles included in this systematic review and meta-analysis, Ethiopia, 2020
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Forest plot of the included studies to determine the pooled prevalence of occupational stress among health care professionals in Ethiopia, 2020
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Funnel plot to assess publication bias among included studies, 2020
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Association between sex and occupational stress among health care professionals in Ethiopia, 2020
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Association between marital status and occupational stress among health care professionals in Ethiopia, 2020
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Association between work experience and occupational stress among health care professionals in Ethiopia, 2020
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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