Assessment of Job stress and Psychosocial stress level using Psychosocial health measurement tool in dental technicians

사회심리적 건강측정도구를 이용한 치과기공사의 스트레스 평가

This study aims to provide the research for dental technician's stress prevention and management with basic materials by understanding dental technician's psychosocial stress level and examining relevant factors. The subject of this study is 255 dental technologists who work mainly in Seoul Gyeonggi district for a month of April of 2009 and I conducted cross-sectional study through self administered survey. The contents of survey include general feature, occupational feature, health behavior feature. I used Karasek's Job Content Questionnaire, JCQ and Psychosocial well-being index, PWI-SF as means of measurement. To compare the level of dental technician's psychosocial stress, I conducted t-test and ANOVA and I measured the factors that are related with psychosocial stress symptom with step by step multiple regressive analysis. According to the result of Cronbach's a value which is yielded to verify the reliability of means of measurement, the reliability of concept is sufficient. The detailed result of this study is as follows. 1. According to the result of analyzing the stress symptom in accordance with general feature and occupational feature, those dental technologists who are older and not married, graduate from junior college, have lower position, work at university hospital or general hospital show lower stress(p<0.05). There is no difference in the level of psychosocial stress with regard to duty related feature, period of service, daily average working hours, monthly average pay. 2. With regard to health behavior feature, those dental technologists who control weight better and have meal more regularly show lower stress(p<0.05). Those dental technicians who smoke, drink liquid and take a suitable sleep show low stress but the difference does not have significance statistically. 3. With regard to the factors of stress in the workplace, those dental technicians who have lower duty related requirement, have higher duty related control ability, have higher social support, have less instability of employment and have less workload and physical burden show lower stress(p<0.05). 4. According to the result of analyzing the factors that influence dental technologist's stress symptom, social support has the most enormous influence on stress symptom. Unstable employment, regular exercise, regular eating, daily average sleeping hours and technological capacity are also important in this order. According to the result of this study, those dental technicians who have higher social support, less instability of employment, do exercise more regularly, take enough sleep more soundly and have higher technological capacity show lower psychosocial stress symptom. Therefore, to adjust appropriately the dental technician's stress and properly maintain and improve the dental technician's mental health, effective management plan that enables dental technicians to maintain smooth human relationships for dental technicians should be sought. In addition, heath education and health management for dental technicians should be given more thoroughly so that they can establish desirable health behavior in daily life.