Happiness and Impacts of Various Factors on the Happiness of Physicians Working in a Cancer Institute, North East India

Objective: To identify how happy are the physicians working in an Oncology setup and how different factors influence the happiness levels of these doctors working in this challenging setup. Materials and methods: This is an observational study designed to be carried out at a Tertiary Cancer Care Centre. The survey was conducted from 1st July to August 30th, 2023. Self-administered Oxford Happiness Questionnaire was used, which is a closed-ended questionnaire. Those who were not willing to participate and whose work/ course duration was less than 6 months were not included in the study. Stephen Wright scoring was used. A score between 1-2 was interpreted as not happy, 2-3 meant somewhat unhappy, 3-4 was for not particularly happy, 4 represented somewhat happy, 4-5 was interpreted as rather happy or pretty happy, a score between 5-6 means very happy, 6 meant too happy. Results: Out of 93 study subjects, 54 were men (58%) and 39 (42%) were women. Of 93 doctors, 68 (73.1%) were happy. Of 68 doctors, a somewhat happy category was 31 (33.3%) doctors, followed by 29 (31.2%) being pretty happy, and 8(8.6%) doctors who were very happy. Twenty-five (26.9%) doctors were unhappy. Conclusion: The majority of doctors working in an oncology set-up were happy with no difference in gender. However, men were more likely to be very happy compared to women.