Association of Workplace stress with age among physiotherapists working in public and private sectors of Faisalabad.

Background: Stress in the working environment occur when there is imbalance between demand and ability of physiotherapists to fulfill those demands. Objective: This study aims to find out the stressors causing stress at the workplace and to determine the association of stress experienced by physiotherapists with their age. Methodology: A total of 100 physiotherapists from Faisalabad was included in this study to see the effect of workplace stressors in relation to their age, by giving them questionnaires. Simple Random sampling technique was used in this study and written informed consent was taken from all the participants. Criteria included age between 24-60, working hours 4 to 7 and experience of 1 year or more prominent. Results: Caseload Quantity, complexity of patients, staff shortage and increased work demand were identified as main workplace stressors. Physiotherapists aged below 25 years (junior physiotherapists) have experienced higher symptoms of the stress in their working environment as compared to senior and senior most physiotherapist (X2 = 9.752, p<0.01). Seventy-seven percent of junior physiotherapists taken leave from the duty (X2 = 11.54, p<0.01) because of above-mentioned workplace stressors. Conclusion: Junior physiotherapists (age below 25) tend to be more affected at the workplace due to emotional and physical stress. Due to shortage of staff the have experienced more stress and have taken more leaves from duty and as a result their job performance becomes poor when contrasted with senior physiotherapists (age between 25-40) and most senior physiotherapists (age above 40). Keywords: Anxiety, Hypertension, Occupational health, Physiotherapists, Workplace stress