Social support and depressive symptoms among physicians in tertiary hospitals in China: a cross-sectional study

Social support is an important factor for individual's mental health. However, the association between social support and depressive symptoms among physicians in China' tertiary hospitals has not been explored. This study aimed to investigate its association among physicians stratifying by sex. Six hundred fifty-six physicians were enrolled from 12 tertiary hospitals of Shandong Province, China. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Social support was evaluated using the Social Support Rating Scale. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between social support and depressive symptoms among physicians. The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 42.3% and the average social support score was 38.82 ± 7.53 among physicians. Lower subjective social support scores (male: β = - 0.317, p