Assessment of happiness among ASHAs, the grass root level health workers in post-COVID era in Eastern India: a cross-sectional study

Aditi Aikat; Baijayanti Baur; Urmila Dasgupta

doi:10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20240320

Authors

Aditi Aikat Department of Community Medicine, JIMSH, Kolkata, West Bengal, India https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5448-1557
Baijayanti Baur Department of Community Medicine, JIMSH, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Urmila Dasgupta Department of Community Medicine, JIMSH, Kolkata, West Bengal, India

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20240320

Keywords:

ASHA, Oxford happiness questionnaire, Factors of happiness, Happiness assessment

Abstract

Background: The happiness of healthcare professionals is said to be positively affecting the quality of health care and the services provided by them. Presently, our country and its health care has been recovering from the brunt of COVID pandemic. Amid these changing circumstances, this study intends to assess the happiness among the key grassroot level workers, ASHAs in the post-COVID era and the factors affecting their happiness, as happiness is often put forward as one of the driving forces to peoples’ choices and actions.

Methods: A modified short version of Oxford happiness questionnaire was used to assess the happiness among the ASHAs selected through multistage sampling and interviewed to assess the facilitators and barriers to their happiness.

Results: Of the 112 ASHAs interviewed, 61.6% were happy, while 38.4% were unhappy. The variables like having commitment to work, mental alertness and ability to find beauty in many natural things had universal agreement, while not feeling healthy, or whether they find time for everything wanted have disagreement. Almost 87.5% felt they were not especially control of their lives and 41% were not being well satisfied with everything in life. The factors facilitating happiness were professional pride, altruism, quality of life, and major barriers identified were inadequate rest, imbalance in work-life, family issues, etc.

Conclusions: Positive reinforcement in terms of better workplace environment, time management skill enhancement, to strike a better work-life balance to ensure a happier version of themselves.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

World Health Organization. Everybody’s business: strengthening health systems to improve health outcomes. 2007. WHO’S framework for action. Available at: https://www.who.int/health systems/strategy/everybodys_business.pdf. Accessed on 15 December 2023.

Anand S, Bärnighausen T. Health workers at the core of the health system: framework and research issues. Health Policy. 2012;105(2-3):185-91.

Jainul AM, Buvnesh KM, Logaraj M, Ramraj B. A study on impact of training programme on knowledge of maternal health care among ASHA workers in a tribal population of Tamil Nadu. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2019;6(3):1147-51.

ASHA; Home » Communitisation » About Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA). Available at: https://nhm.gov.in/index1.php?lang=1&level=1 &sublinkid=150&lid=226#:~:text=She%20will%20counsel%20women%20on,care%20of%20the%20young%20child. Accessed on 15 December, 2023.

Kalita M, Borah G, Koch M; Role of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) Workers In Assam: An Analysis In The Context Of Coronavirus Disease Of 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic. Eur J Molecular Clin Med. 2020;7(3):5275-9.

Seligman MEP, Csikszentmihalyi M. Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist. 2000;55(1):5-14.

Oxford dictionary. Available at: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/happiness. Accessed on 15 December 2023.

Paiva CE, Paiva BSR, De Camargos MG, Demarzo MMP, Hervas G, Vázquez C. The pemberton happiness index: validation of the Universal Portuguese version in a large Brazilian sample. Medicine. 2016;95:e4915.

Veenhoven R. Greater happiness for a greater number: did the promise of enlightenment come true? Soc Indic Res. 2017;130:9-25.

Brand SL, Thompson CJ, Fleming LE, Carroll L, Bethel A, Wyatt K. Whole-system approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of healthcare workers: A systematic review. PloS one. 2017;12(12):e0188418.

Kokonya DA, Mburu JM, Kathuku DM, Ndetei DM, Adam AH, Nshimirimana DA et al. Burnout syndrome among medical workers at Kenyatta national Hospital (KNH), Nairobi, Kenya. J Psychiatry. 2014;17:6.

Dyrbye LN, Shanafelt TD, Sinsky CA, Cipriano PF, Bhatt J, Ommaya A et al. Burnout among health care professionals: a call to explore and address this underrecognized threat to safe, high-quality care. Natl Acad Med. 2017;1-11.

Lafreniere JP, Rios R, Packer H, Ghazarian S, Wright SM, Levine RB. Burned Out at the Bedside: Patient Perceptions of Physician Burnout in an Internal Medicine Resident Continuity Clinic. J General Internal Med. 2016;31(2):203-8.

Einarsdóttir J. Happiness in the neonatal intensive care unit: merits of ethnographic fieldwork. Int J Qual Stud Health Well-Being. 2012;7:1-9.

Khosrojerdi Z, Tagharrobi Z, Sooki Z, Sharifi K. Predictors of happiness among Iranian nurses. Int J Nursing Sci. 2018;5(3):281-6.

Pollock NC, Noser AE, Holden CJ, Zeigler-Hill V. Do orientations to happiness mediate the associations between personality traits and subjective well-being? J Happiness Stud. 2016;17:713-29.

Hills P, Argyle M. The Oxford Happiness Questionnaire: A compact scale for the measurement of psychological well-being. Personality Individual Differences. 2002;33(7):1071-82.

Bekhet AK, Zauszniewski JA, Nakhla WE. Happiness: Theoretical and Empirical Considerations. Nursing Forum. 2008;43:12-23.

Gannotti ME, Blanchard Y, Blumberg L, LaRocco D. Shared meanings of success, happiness, and health among adults with cerebral palsy and physiotherapists: implications for practice and research. Disability Rehabilit. 2019;41(11):1321-30.

Muthuri RNDK, Senkubuge F, Hongoro C. Determinants of happiness among healthcare professionals between 2009 and 2019: a systematic review. Humanit Soc Sci Commun. 2020;7:98.

Susniene D, Jurkauskas A. The concepts of quality of life and happiness-correlation and differences. Eng Econ. 2009;63:58-66.

Buaklee P, Fongkaew W, Turale S, Akkadechanunt T, Sansiriphun N. Unveiling the experiences of happiness at work through narrative inquiry: Advance practice nurses' perspectives. Pacific Rim Int J Nursing Res. 2017;21(3):206-19.

Petriş A, Tatu-Chiţoiu G, Pop C. Highlights on Romanian cardiologist's happiness: results of fellow cardiologists' self-rating. Roman J Cardiol. 2013;23(1).

Machado L, Tavares H, Petribú K, Pinto T, Cantilino A. Happiness and Defense Styles in Psychiatrists. J Nervous Mental Dis. 2016;204(3):181-7.

Elliot M, Cullen M, Calitz AP. Happiness among South African private sector physiotherapists. South Afr J Physiother. 2018;74:1-10.