Occupational Safety and Health (PhD) / Επαγγελματική Ασφάλεια και Υγεία (PhD)

Background: Despite the repeated evidence that point out the strong link between occupational risks, work-related stress, and emotional exhaustion, to this date, the research on occupational risks and their consequences to the general wellbeing of Public Health Inspectors is very limited, although the nature of the work presents a range of threats to physical and psychological health. The aim of this study was to report the job risks of Public Health Inspectors in Greece and investigate possible relationships with burnout, job satisfaction and training needs. Methods: This is a quantitative, cross-sectional, nationwide study in Greece, conducted in two phases: 1) pilot study in the first quarter of 2021 and 2) main study the second and third quarters of 2021. For data collection, an online survey was created, and the web link was distributed to respondents by email. A total number of 684 Public Health Inspectors were contacted and 231 responses were collected (response rate 33.77%). The pilot phase of the study (N=46) successfully validated the reliability of the data collection instrument. The main study was then conducted in a sample of N=185 Public Health Inspectors. Job risks were measured with a novel risk assessment instrument developed by the researcher also developed instrument for measured training needs and quality, while burnout was measured with Maslach Burnout Inventory and job satisfaction with Paul Spector’ s Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS) as adopted in the Greek language. Results: The findings of this study indicated that 87% of participants gave high ratings to psychosocial risks and ergonomic risks, followed by 78% for organizational risks and 74% for biological risks. Physical risks and chemical risks are less prevalent (55% and 56%, respectively). Burnout has proven to be an issue, since 42.7% of participants report above average burnout scores. Most participants (59.46%) reported medium job satisfaction scores, while a significant proportion of 32.97% reported dissatisfaction. Psychosocial risks were significant predictors of emotional exhaustion (β=0.500, p<0.001) and burnout (β=0.455, p<0.001), while organizational risks (β=-0.282, p=0.001), emotional exhaustion (β=-0.477, p=0.000) and perceived training quality (β= 0.195, p=0.002) were linked to job satisfaction. Most participants (65.41%) reported high training needs while no direct relationship was found with job risks (p>0.05). Employees in rural areas presented a higher perception of biological risks (χ2= 14.826, p<0.01) and burnout (χ2= 16.017, p <0.01). Higher training needs were reported by employees in urban areas (χ2= 24.895, p <0.01). Conclusions: Public Health Inspectors in Greece face a variety of job risks, mainly psychosocial, ergonomic, organizational, biological, chemical and physical risks, the severity of which contribute to emotional exhaustion and burnout, while linked to lower levels of job satisfaction. These findings were among the first to address Occupational Health and Safety of Public Health Inspectors in Greece and worldwide, incorporating already established but also new evidence of organizational, ergonomic and psychosocial risks that are increasing in current working conditions worldwide. A new proposed classification of job risks for Public Health Inspectors was developed and was verified scientifically, while a checklist was proposed for risk assessment in Public Health Organizations. This study contributes to the limited evidence supporting the link between job risks, burnout and job satisfaction adding new information to occupational health and safety for the field of Public Health Inspection, which could be exploited to advance the quality of Public Health Services provision. Also reported high training needs, especially in the fields of health and safety at work, stress management, personal protective equipment, protection against biological agents and protection from chemical agents. Especially, protection against biological agents such as coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).