title: Healthy mind and body in a healthy work environment.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the relationship between psychological distress and physical somatic symptoms as well as work environment conditions in the diverse population of dentists based in the Canary Islands (Spain).
  
  
  METHODS
  203 dentists officially registered with the local General Dental Councils, returned the questionnaire delivered by mail. Participants provided information on demographic characteristics, self-constructed questions like self-perceived environmental working conditions (location, access, temperature, humidity and pollution). They also completed the Spanish versions of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the revised version of the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R). The GHQ-12 was used to assess psychological distress and the somatic physical symptoms were assessed with the 12-item somatic subscale extracted from the SCL-90-R. Three different linear regression models were constructed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Psychological distress was positively related to somatic symptoms in all the models even after adjusting for sex and age. This association also remained significant for self-perceived environmental working conditions in the two final models. 23% of the dentists had psychological distress. The mean score for the SCL-90-R somatic subscale was 0.55 points (Standard Deviation: 0.50).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Self-perceived environmental working conditions were also associated with the strong relationship found between psychological distress and physical somatic symptoms among dentists.
authors.affiliation: NHS Islington, UK. manuel.perez-padron@islingtonpct.nhs.uk
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perez-Padron
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bernabé
authors.forename: Gladys
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gomez-Santos
authors.forename: Georgios
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tsakos
authors.forename: Vicente
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lozano de Luacess
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005792:General Practice, Dental; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009784:Occupational Diseases / Q000523:psychology; D012931:Social Environment; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D013030:Spain; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017132:Workplace; D055815:Young Adult