Abstract

satisfaction survey of female dentists in Gwangju was performed and the factors affecting job satisfaction were examined. A survey of female dentists in Gwangju was conducted using a custom-designed and validated questionnaire which incorporated the Korean Dentist satisfaction Survey (KDSS) as well as questions regarding socio-demographics and professional characteristics. Satisfaction for each question was measured by a 5-point Likert scale. The final analysis was performed with 89 questionnaires, after excluding 3 non-response questionnaires. Analysis of the data for each group was carried out using a Mann- Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test. The reliability of the questionnaire was identified by the internal consistency of the survey using Cronbach coefficient. The data were statistically analyzed using SPSS (IBM SPSS Statistics 19, SPSS Inc, Chicago, Ill, USA). The level of statistical significance was set at p = 0.05. On analyzing with use of the above mentioned method, the following findings were observed: Income, leisure time, time for self-development, and overall job satisfaction were lower than the average, especially the percentage of dissatisfaction was much higher than that of satisfaction. Satisfaction was associated with age, duration of employment, and the number of assistants. The limitations of this study are the lack of an adequate sample size, convenience sampling during extraction, the lack of questionnaire items, the limitations of quantitative research, and failure to perform measurement in the non-response group. However, female dentists can be expected to achieve a more satisfactory and enhanced working environment if the research based on the current study is followed up in an expanded target group.