Factors affecting job satisfaction among primary and secondary school teachers in the autonomous province of Vojvodina

The study presented in this paper analyses the impact of the individual factors of mental and physical health and life satisfaction, as well as the importance of some organizational factors such as the climate in schools, the composition of classes in the case of class teachers, and certain demographic characteristics on primary and secondary school teachers' job satisfaction. The data were collected from a convenience sample of 176 teachers of primary and secondary schools in Serbia's autonomous province of Vojvodina, of different ages, genders, and years of service. The principal results indicate that job satisfaction is higher among teachers who perceive the climate in their school as positive, among teachers with higher life satisfaction, and among teachers who are in good health and, most importantly, lacking depressive reactions. When it comes to perceptions of the climate, the best predictor of job satisfaction is the degree of respondents' satisfaction with collaboration with colleagues and with decision making processes. The results also indicate that secondary school teachers report a higher level of overall job satisfaction, specifically, a higher level of satisfaction with school governance, co-workers and communication than primary school teachers. As regards demographic characteristics, the results suggest that there are no significant gender differences in job satisfaction levels and that job satisfaction declines with the number of years of service, with respondents who had between 21 and 30 years of service reporting the lowest levels of job satisfaction, which tended to rise towards the end of the teaching career

Impact of Drug–Drug and Drug–Disease Interactions on Gait Speed in Community-Dwelling Older Adults

BACKGROUND: Gait speed decline, an early marker of functional impairment, is a sensitive predictor of adverse health outcomes in older adults. The effect of potentially inappropriate prescribing on gait speed decline is not well known. OBJECTIVE: To determine if potentially inappropriate drug interactions impair functional status as measured by gait speed. METHODS: The sample included 2,402 older adults with medication and gait speed data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition study. The independent variable was the frequency of drug-disease and/or drug-drug interactions at baseline and three additional years. The main outcome was a clinically meaningful gait speed decline ≥ 0.1 m/s the year following drug interaction assessment. Adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using multivariate generalized estimating equations for both the overall sample and a sample stratified by gait speed at time of drug interaction assessment. RESULTS: The prevalence of drug-disease and drug-drug interactions ranged from 7.6–9.3% and 10.5–12.3%, respectively, with few participants (3.8–5.7%) having multiple drug interactions. At least 22% of participants had a gait speed decline of ≥ 0.1 m/s annually. Drug interactions were not significantly associated with gait speed decline overall or in the stratified sample of fast walkers. There was some evidence, however, that drug interactions increased the risk of gait speed decline among those participants with slower gait speeds, though p values did not reach statistical significance (adjusted odds ratio 1.22, 95% confidence intervals 0.96–1.56, p=0.11). Moreover, a marginally significant dose-response relationship was seen with multiple drug interactions and gait speed decline (adjusted odds ratio 1.40; 95% confidence intervals 0.95–2.04, p=0.08). CONCLUSIONS: Drug interactions may increase the likelihood of gait speed decline among older adults with evidence of preexisting debility. Future studies should focus on frail elders with less physiological reserve who may be more susceptible to the harms associated with potentially inappropriate medications