The analysis of job related stress and health related quality of life (HRQoL) of lecturers: Using SPSS 16 and Structural Equation Modeling

In Malaysia, academicians have been one of the most important groups in the society that is at a higher risk of suffering from job related stress. A cross sectional study was conducted in the middle of the academic semester of a university from 25th September 2011 to 10th November 2011 to investigate factors that affect job related stress and to find out if job related stress in turn influence the health related quality of life (HRQoL) of lecturers. It was also conducted to find out if HRQoL of lecturers differ between gender and age group. Comparison of HRQoL was also made between the lecturers and the general Malaysian population norm. The target population for this study was lecturers at one of the public universities in Malaysia with a size of 4500 lecturers. Data was obtained via survey using SF36v2 (questions on HRQoL) and the Occupation Stress Indicator (OSI) to measure job related stress and was analyzed using SPSS16 and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Sample size calculated was 393 using IBM Complex sampling for cluster, stratified and simple random techniques. However, only 277 lecturers responded with a response rate of 57.7%. Nevertheless, analysis using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) could still be conducted since a minimum of 200 respondents is suggested. The results showed that all the mean scores for the eight domains of SF36v2 are lower than that of the general Malaysian population norm. There are also significant differences in the mean scores for HRQoL domains between gender and age group. It is also discovered that there is significant and direct impact of conflict, work burden and time pressure on job stress which in turn influence health related quality of life. In conclusion, the management of this public university should pay attention to the results of this study by looking into ways of reducing job stress to enhance the HRQoL of lecturers. With better quality of life, it is hoped that this will improve their job performance and productivity.