Development a set of scales to assess job satisfaction among physicians in Peru: validity and reliability assessment

Resumo

To assess the evidences of validity and reliability of a set of scales on different areas of job satisfaction (general professional activity, health services management, and working conditions) in Peruvian physicians based on data from the National Survey of Satisfaction of Users in Health (ENSUSALUD). Participants were selected from a two-stage probabilistic national representative sampling stratified by political region. We included 2,137 participants in the analysis. General professional activity scale with 6 items (CFI=0.946; RMSEA=0.071) and the health services management scale with 8 items (CFI=0.972; RMSEA=0.081) showed good measurement properties for the one-dimensional model. The scale of working conditions presented adequate measurement properties with a two-dimensional model (CFI=0.914; RMSEA=0.080): individual conditions (8 items) and infrastructural conditions (3 items). The invariance analysis presented that comparisons can be made between sex, age, civil status, medical specialty, working in other institutions, work-related illness, chronic disease, and time working in health care center. All scales had adequate internal consistency (ω and α between 0.70 and 0.90). Based on our findings, these instruments are suitable for measuring job satisfaction among outpatient physicians throughout Peru, as our data is representative at the country level.