Comparative Assessment of the Quality of Life Indicators among Pre-Retirement Age Professionals from Various Fields

Introduction: High workloads and digitalization are the causes of stress that reduce the quality of life of health professionals. Employees approaching the retirement age require special attention.

Objective: To compare quality of life indicators in the pre-retirement age population working in healthcare and other sectors in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Materials and Methods: In 2025, an online survey was conducted in Yekaterinburg involving 156 physicians and 165 other specialists of pre-retirement age and using an adapted version of WHOQOL-BREF. Quality of life indicators were assessed by the domains of physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment. The data were analyzed using standard descriptive and analytical statistics. Statistical analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel.

Results: The survey showed that the physicians of pre-retirement age had lower scores across all domains than non-medical professionals. The number of those dissatisfied with their physical health was 2.8 higher than in the controls and they were 4.5 times more likely to report a lack of time for leisure activities. In terms of psychological health, the frequency of negative emotions exceeded that in the reference group by 67.9 %, and 30.7 % were dissatisfied with their work achievements. On the independence scale, low performance was thrice more common. In terms of social relationships, 23.1 % of the physicians were dissatisfied with their personal relations, and 34.6 % – with the support of friends and family. On the environment scale, doctors were more likely to be dissatisfied with their financial situation, transportation accessibility, and medical care.

Conclusions: Compared to the professionals working in other sectors, the quality-of-life indicators established among the medical doctors are lower across all the domains. This finding should be taken into account when developing measures aimed at improving the quality of life of physicians and solving the identified problems.

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