Job satisfaction and associated factors among health care staff in township health centers--a cross-sectional survey in rural Central China

Township health centers play a cornerstone role in the primary healthcare in China while it's development is largely limited by the brain drain. Job satisfaction is closely related to brain drain, investigating the relevant factors of job satisfaction can provide strategies to reduce brain drain. This research was conducted in Huangpi, China. Convenience sampling methods and self-administereded questionnaires were used. We collected 1370 valid samples, with an effective rate of 97.72%. Descriptive statistics are used to describe sociodemographic information. The Pearson Chi-square statistical was used to test the binary association between job satisfaction and another categorical variable. All the sociodemographic information was applied to the binary logistic regression model using the stepwise selection method. The mean age was 36.98 (SD = 9.84), factors that affect job satisfaction include educational background (x(2) = 7.99, p< 0.05), marital status (x(2) = 8.96, p< 0.05, monthly income (x(2) = 51.43, p< 0.01), hire form (x(2) = 7.64, p< 0.05), hours worked per week (x(2) = 33.48, p< 0.01), parent had a stable job (x(2) = 10.65, p< 0.01). Government and management should consider the impact of current policies on job satisfaction. Increasing the welfare of healthcare staff and promoting equity are potential strategies for improving low levels of job satisfaction.