Mental well-being, sense of coherence and sociodemographic factors in family medicine resident physicians

Abstract

Introduction: The World Health Organization considers that the university should be a social space in which health is promoted to improve or prevent diseases in the school community. In the various clinical-educational settings in which medical residents carry out their specialization, situations occur that affect their physical and mental health. The sense of coherence is their ability to perceive that you are competent and to handle any of these situations, regardless of what is going in their life, is an ability to select the coping style that best fits a given situation.

Objective: To determine the relationship between mental wellness, sense of coherence and sociodemographic factors of interest in resident physicians specializing in family medicine.

Method: A cross-sectional predictive study was carried out, with the participation of family medicine residents, with prior informed consent, sociodemographic factors were collected, their sense of coherence and mental wellness were measured by applying valid and reliable instruments. Using a generalized linear model, the relationship between these variables was estimated, adjusting for academic grade, p ≤ 0.05 values were considered statistically significant.

Results: Sense of coherence was significantly associated with mental wellness (B = 0.223, CI 95% [0.137, 0.309], p = 0.000), in first-degree residents (B = –7.573, CI 95% [–12.637, –2.508], p = 0.003) and in second-degree residents (B = –6.336, CI 95% [–11.925, –0.748], p = 0.026). The deviance analysis (D2 = 0.6427) indicates that sense of coherence and academic degree reveal 64% of the variability of mental well-being.

Conclusions: The sense of coherence had a significant relationship with the mental well-being in resident physicians specializing in family medicine; therefore, interventions aimed at promoting a sense of coherence can be designed and used to mitigate their mental well-being.