To examine the well‐being differences among physicians working in different health care sectors and to test whether psychosocial stressors account for these differences. The well‐being indicators used were psychological distress, self‐rated health, and work ability.
Data Sources/Study Setting
A total of 2,841 randomly selected Finnish physicians (response rate 57 percent) returned the postal questionnaire, of which 2,047 (1,241 women) fulfilled all the participant criteria.
This is a cross‐sectional questionnaire study.
General practitioners and medical specialists experienced lower well‐being than private physicians and this difference was partly explained by differences in psychosocial stressors.
General practitioners and medical specialists report more problems in well‐being than private physicians. It is of particular importance to be aware of the sector‐specific difficulties in work environments.
