Evaluation of Self-esteem, Emotional Intelligence, and their Association with Demographic Factors among Health Care Professionals in Karachi

Abstract

Background: Healthcare professionals are exposed to difficult situations that lead to increased stress. Higher emotional intelligence can lead to better psychological adaptation and greater self-esteem while lower emotional intelligence may result in hopelessness and stressful behavior. Objective: To examine self-esteem, emotional intelligence, and their relationship with demographic factors among healthcare professionals in Karachi. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among healthcare professionals using a self-reported questionnaire. The data was collected through Google forms from April 2021 to April 2022. Spearman correlation and Mann-Whitney U test were applied for inferential statistics and the p-value was fixed at ≤0.05. Results: A total of 261 participants responded to the survey with complete responses. The mean age of the participants was 28 (IQR=26-30) years and most of them were females (69%). The median emotional intelligence score of participants was 5.56 (IQR=6.00-4.93) and the median self-esteem score of participants was 29 (IQR=30-27). A weak positive correlation was found between emotional intelligence and self-esteem scores (ρ=0.285, p<0.001). Linear regression analysis showed a significant positive association of education (p=0.024) and a significant negative association of profession (p=0.017) with self-esteem. Moreover, it also showed a significant positive association of age (p=0.045) with emotional intelligence. Conclusion: The study results showed a weak positive correlation between emotional intelligence and self-esteem. Furthermore, education and profession were found to be significantly associated with self-esteem whereas only age was found to be significantly associated with the emotional intelligence of the participants.