Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Jun 2, 2023
Date Accepted: Apr 6, 2024
Differences in physicians’ ratings of work stressors and resources associated with digital transformation
ABSTRACT
Background:
The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the need and implementation of digital innovations especially in medicine.
Objective:
In order to gain a better understanding of the stress associated with digital transformation in physicians, the present study aimed to identify working conditions which are (1) stress-relevant for physicians, and (2) differ in dependence of digital transformation. In addition, we examined the potential role of individual characteristics (i.e., age, sex, actual implementation of a digital innovation within the last three years) in digitalization-associated differences in these working conditions.
Methods:
Cross-sectional online questionnaire data of 268 physicians (mean [SD] age = 40.9 [12.3] years; 44% women) in Germany were analyzed. Physicians rated their chronic stress level and eleven relevant working conditions (i.e. work stressors such as time pressure and work resources such as influence on sequence), both before and after either a fictional or real implementation of a relevant digital transformation at their workplace. In addition, a subsample of individuals (n = 60, 55% women) submitted self-collected hair samples for cortisol analysis.
Results:
The stress relevance of the selected working conditions was confirmed by significant correlations with self-rated chronic stress and hair cortisol levels (Hair-F) within the sample, all of them in the expected direction. Multi-level modelling revealed significant differences associated with digital transformation in the rating of eight out of eleven working conditions. More precisely, digital transformation was associated with potentially stress-enhancing effects in six working conditions (e.g., influence on procedures and complexity of tasks) and stress-reducing effects in two other working conditions (i.e., perceived workload and time pressure). A lower age, female sex, and the actual implementation of a digital innovation at one’s own workplace were associated with a rather stress-reducing perception of digitalization-associated differences in these working conditions.
Conclusions:
Our study lays the foundation for future hypothesis-based longitudinal research by identifying those working conditions which are stress relevant for physicians, and prone to differ as a function of digital transformation and individual characteristics. Clinical Trial: none
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