Psychosocial work environment related health in Swedish oral and maxillofacial surgery in comparison with other human service workers

The aims of this study were to describe how the employees of OMFS clinics in Sweden perceive their health, to compare with female unpromoted general practice dentists and other human service groups and to explore the dimensionality of the health measure. Data were collected by way of a questionnaire with 67 questions, related to quality management at the clinic,working situation, questions about the content of "good work",the connection between physical environment and health,emphasis on physical environment. 22 clinics with 297 employees responded, 65% of the clinics and 86% of the employees. The results showed that employees of OMFS clinics in Sweden perceived their health as rather problematic. In comparison,the present study group placed itself between general practice dentists and other human service groups as to their health. Three factors explained more than half of the variance of symptoms. They were interpreted as (i) psychosomatic troubles, (2) somatic troubles, and (3) muscle and joint troubles. These factors were almost the same as previously reported, confirming the basic dimensionality of the question battery. This study has shown that OMFS employees are feeling unhealthy, but no worse than other high-risk-groups in human service working situation and better than female general practice dentists. The women among OMFS employees felt worse than the men. Three factors of symptoms could be established, i.e. psychosomatic troubles, somatic troubles, and muscle and joint troubles.