Relationship between Job Satisfaction, Burnout, and Depressive Symptoms in Physicians: A Cross-sectional Study based on the Employment Demand Control Model

We evaluated the relationship between job satisfaction, burnout syndrome, and depressive symptoms among Peruvian physicians using the job demand–control framework. We carried out a secondary data analysis of the National Survey of Satisfaction of Users in Health 2016 in Peru. The first part was based on the association among the variables based on the job demand–control framework. The second part focused on estimating the acceptability of the proposed model based on the study variables through the structural equation modeling technique. A total of 2,100 physicians were included, and the prevalence of depressive symptoms was 3.3%. Physicians who had a work-related illness were more than twice as likely to have depressive symptoms (PR=2.23) compared with those who did not. The first predictive model based on the variables, depressive symptoms, burnout syndrome, and job satisfaction had a low goodness-of-fit index. Therefore, for a second evaluation, models with correlated errors were considered, and optimal goodness-of-fit indices were found (CFI=0.974; RMSEA=0.060). Our study identified a stable model to explain the relationship between job satisfaction, burnout, and depressive symptoms among physicians. The results are consistent with the job demand–control framework and can be applied to decision making in occupational contexts in Peru.