Demographic and occupational factors associated with work-life balance among physician assistants/associates: a cross-sectional study.

Abstract

To examine demographic and occupational attributes associated with work-life balance (WLB) satisfaction among physician assistants/associates (PAs) using a national dataset. This is a cross-sectional study using 2023 national data. USA. The study included 149 909 board certified PAs who updated, confirmed or verified their profile questions. Descriptive and bivariate statistics, followed by multivariate logistic regression, were conducted to identify factors associated with WLB satisfaction among PAs. The primary outcome was a binary variable derived from a 7-point scale assessing PAs' satisfaction with WLB. Responses of 'Somewhat', 'Mostly' and 'Completely' satisfied were coded as '<i>Satisfied'</i>, while 'Neither/Nor', 'Somewhat', 'Mostly' and 'Completely' dissatisfied were coded as '<i>Not satisfied'</i>. Our analytical sample comprised 86,000 PAs who responded to a question inquiring about their satisfaction with WLB. Over two-thirds (71.7%) of PAs indicated satisfaction with WLB. The multivariate logistic regression revealed that the types of specialties that PAs practised were among the strongest factors associated with WLB satisfaction. Compared with PAs in primary care, those practising in dermatology (adjusted OR (aOR)=1.83; 95% CI 1.66 to 2.02), general surgery (aOR=1.64; 95% CI 1.48 to 1.83), pain medicine (aOR=1.63; 95% CI 1.41 to 1.89) and hospital medicine (aOR=1.52; 95% CI 1.37 to 1.68) had higher odds of being satisfied with WLB (all p<0.001). Moreover, compared with females, male PAs indicated nearly 25% higher odds of being satisfied with WLB (p<0.001). Lower odds of WLB satisfaction were observed among PAs with any education debt, those seeing more than 40 patients weekly, those working over 40 hours a week, and PAs in their mid- and late-career stages. Our findings revealed that PAs practising in non-primary care specialties had the highest odds of reporting satisfaction with WLB. Identifying factors strongly associated with PA work-life balance can aid in developing targeted interventions. However, further research is needed to understand the intrinsic and extrinsic factors influencing PAs' WLB.