Journal of Modern Medical

Introduction
Choosing a career is based on desires, experiences, and goals, which are called “job expectations”. There is a relationship between the selected job and the values and desires needed to achieve the goals. If someone complains about their job, it may be because they are not satisfied with their job. Stephen Robbins defines job satisfaction as an individual’s general attitude towards his/her job. One of the main reasons for paying attention to job satisfaction is the quality of life of people. Quality of life is a multi-dimensional concept and shows an individual’s perception of his/her goals, values, and interests in life. Factors such as a sense of security, emotional conflicts, goals, failure tolerance, self-perception, productivity, motivation, attitude towards life, and foresight have a profound effect on the quality of life. The negative dimensions of a job can lead to low job satisfaction and low quality of life.
The medical profession is directly related to human health. It is very important to identify the level of job satisfaction in physicians and the factors affecting it. Their job satisfaction has a direct relationship with the quality of services provided by them and the level of patient satisfaction. Leaving the service is more common among dissatisfied physicians, which can encourage others not to enter this profession and cause serious damage to doctor-patient relationships and be costly. The purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting the job satisfaction of general practitioners (GPs) in Iran in 2016.

Methods
In this study, participants were 666 GPs in Iran in 2016 who were selected by simple random sampling method. Cohen’s sample size formula was used to estimate the required number of samples. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire that surveys demographic information (including sex, year of birth, number of children, marital status), job-related information (such as work experience, job sector, income level from the medical profession), and the economic views of doctors. The reliability and validity of the tool were examined and confirmed. Data collection was done during two national conferences of the Iranian General Practitioners Association. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics of job and financial satisfaction scores based on demographic characteristics and performance were used first. Research hypotheses were examined using the chi-square test for categorical variables and ANOVA and logistic regression analysis for quantitative variables. Variables with P<0.2 were included in the regression model. Data analysis was done in Stata software, version 14.

Results
Based on the results, 25.56% of GPs had high job satisfaction and 39.66% had high financial satisfaction (Table 1).


In terms of sex, 60.40% of female GPs had high job satisfaction, while the percentage of high job dissatisfaction in male GPs was 52.87%. Those working in the private sector and those with high economic expectations reported high job satisfaction. The GPs with a higher ratio of actual income to target income showed higher job satisfaction. Patients’ satisfaction was higher with GPs who had a high level of job satisfaction. The GPs with high perceived relative income reported job satisfaction. The GPs with low job satisfaction were older. Also, married GPs had higher job satisfaction (Table 2).


Female GPs, those working in the public sector, and those with higher economic expectations reported high financial satisfaction. The GPs with a higher ratio of actual income to target income and higher perceived relative income had high financial satisfaction. Also, patients were more satisfied with GPS with high financial satisfaction. Married GPs had higher financial satisfaction. The GPs with moderate financial satisfaction had a higher mean age, and those with low financial satisfaction had a lower age (Table 3).


The economic expectations, perceived relative income and patient satisfaction had a significant relationship with job satisfaction of GPs (Table 4).


Gender, job sector, the ratio of actual income to target income, perceived relative income, and age had a significant relationship with the financial satisfaction of GPs (Table 5).



Conclusion
The factors affecting the job satisfaction of GPs in Iran are economic expectations, perceived relative income and patient satisfaction, while the factors affecting their financial satisfaction are gender, job sector, ratio of actual income to target income, perceived relative income, and age.

Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This article is based on the protocols of the Ethics Committee of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, which has been approved (Code: IR.SUMS.REC.1398.1235). 

Funding
This article is financially supported by the Research Vice-Chancellor of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.

Authors' contributions
Study design: All authors; Screening of eligible articles: Sajad Delavari and Maryam Jafarpourian; Data analysis and the initial draft preparation: Mohsen Bayati and Maryam Jafarpourian; Supervision: Zahra Kavosi and Mohsen Bayati.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to the Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and the all participants. 


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