Study design

An observational, prospective, cross-sectional and analytical study was conducted.

Study population

The study population consisted of the health care personnel of the Hospital Arzobispo Loayza, Lima, Peru.

All subjects who participated in the study signed a consent form before being surveyed. The sample size was calculated for finite populations, since we had the population size (N=514), with an expected proportion of 0.5, confidence level of 95%, with an error of 0.05; from which a sample of 290 workers was obtained. The sample was selected by non-probabilistic convenience sampling.

Elegibility criteria

In this study, only health care personnel appointed or under administrative service contract (CAS) were included. Health personnel who are in their residency and/or completing their training, health personnel who have had a recent family loss (6 months prior to the date of the health personnel survey) and personnel who are receiving psychological and/or psychiatric treatment were excluded.

Variables and measurement

Response variable

The Multidimensional Inventory of Coping Evaluation (COPE) test. It measures coping strategies and determines coping styles to stress.⁽¹⁰⁾The test is composed of 60 items, has a Likert-type format consisting of four alternatives ranging from 1 to 4; 1 = I almost never do this, 2 = Sometimes I do this, 3 = Usually I do this and 4 = I do this very often.⁽¹⁰⁾In addition, it has been used and validated in the Peruvian population.⁽¹⁰⁾The results are obtained by adding the scores according to the responses to each item, and this score obtained is divided by the number of items it has according to the dimension to which it belongs.

The test presents 15 strategies, which are: active coping, planning, containment of coping, suppression of activities, positive reinterpretation and growth, acceptance, focusing and releasing emotions, search for instrumental HH reasons, search for emotional HH reasons, mental disengagement, behavioral disengagement, denial, religious coping, use of humor and use of substances. It also presents 3 styles, models or factors, which would be: Task-Directed Coping Style, Social and Emotional Coping Style and Avoidant Coping Style.

Exposure variables

The BarOn Emotional Intelligence Inventory Test (EIT) evaluates the emotional aptitudes of the personality that influence the achievement of overall success and adequate emotional health.⁽¹¹⁾This test is comprised of 133 items, has a Likert-type format consisting of four alternatives which range from 1 to 5; 1 = Rarely or never is my case, 2 = Rarely is my case, 3 = Sometimes is my case, 4 = Many times is my case and 5 = Very often or always is my case. In addition, it has been used and validated in the Peruvian population.⁽¹¹⁾The results are obtained by adding the scores according to the answers of each item. The emotional coefficient scores can be categorized as high (> 100), medium (70-99) and low (25 to 69). The test presents 6 components; the Intrapersonal (IA), Interpersonal (IE), Adaptability (AD), Stress Management (ME), General Mood (AG), CE standard score of the I-CE. It also presents subcomponents, the intrapersonal subcomponent (self-understanding, assertiveness, self-concept, self-actualization, independence); interpersonal subcomponent (empathy, interpersonal relationships, social responsibility); adaptability subcomponents (problem solving, reality testing, flexibility); stress management subcomponent (stress tolerance, impulse control) and the general mood subcomponent (happiness, optimism).

Other variables

The variables were age; sex (male, female); marital status (single, cohabitant, separated, married, divorced); position (dentist, physician, nursing technician, nurse, technologist); type of contract (appointed, CAS); type of work (semi-presential, face-to-face).

Procedures

The researchers, with the prior permission of the institution, surveyed the health personnel virtually using a data collection form divided into 3 parts: the first part was sociodemographic data, the second part was the BarOn test, and the third part was the COPE test. All health personnel who met the inclusion criteria were surveyed.

Statistical analysis

Statistical analysis with STATA v17.0 software. For the descriptive analysis, the qualitative variables were summarized in percentages; while for the quantitative variable will be presented as mean and standard deviation. In the bivariate analysis, the Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for dichotomous and numerical categorical variables, and the Kruskal Wallis test for polychotomous and numerical categorical variables. The Spearman test was also used for numerical variables.

We performed the multivariate generalized linear model of the Gaussian family from a linear regression model. The variables included in the multivariate model were age, sex, marital status, position, type of contract and type of work. These variables were chosen from the literature review. The measure of association was the beta coefficient with its respective 95% confidence interval (CI).

Ethical considerations

The present work was approved by the Hospital and the ethics committee of the Faculty of Medicine of the Southern Scientific University. The study participants gave their oral consent. In addition, all ethical research guidelines and the Declaration of Helsinki were respected.

Main findings

Our results show that emotional intelligence, as measured by the BARON test, correlates moderately positively with stress coping as measured by the COPE test. In addition, emotional intelligence also correlated positively with the three highest scoring emotional coping strategies, which are planning, positive reinterpretation, and religious growth and coping.

Comparison with other studies and Interpretation of results

We found a positive correlation between emotional intelligence and coping to stress, this was similar in a study done in Peru where a correlation coefficient of 0.74 was found.¹²In another study conducted on students, it was found that there was a correlation between active coping and emotional intelligence.¹³Understanding the correlation between emotional intelligence and the health and well-being of individuals with stress management generates interest. One possible explanation is a good interaction between health professionals leads to an interpersonal emotional intelligence that leads the individual to ask for help, listen to advice and strategies.¹⁴Having coping strategies that seek to regulate emotions generates a cognitive change in the meaning of stressful situations without changing the situation that produces the stress.¹⁵In addition, recent research reveals that emotional intelligence of health personnel protects against burnout,¹⁶generates commitment to work,¹⁷is related to job satisfaction,¹⁸well-being,^{19 20)(21}with problem solving and competencies.²⁰⁾⁽²¹Likewise, emotional intelligence also positively influences patient-centered care;²²⁾⁽²³emotionally intelligent health personnel could better cope with work, be more proactive, improving clinical decision making.²⁴

Bar-On demonstrated that emotional intelligence has a significant impact on the capacity for social interaction and stress management.²⁵But the ability to cope with a stressful situation depends on different factors, such as; emotional competence, empathy, self-control and intensity and duration of distress among individuals, gender, wealth level.²⁶In our study we found that the emotional intelligence test increases 0.261 points for each point that the stress coping test increases, this after adjusting for the various factors such as age, sex, marital status, position, type of contract and type of work. One possible explanation would be that stress coping strategies are either adaptive or maladaptive.²⁷This means that stress coping may be influenced by factors specific to the individual such as health status, productivity, personal satisfaction and sociodemographic characteristics.²⁸

Our study also found a significant positive correlation between emotional intelligence and the highest rated stress coping strategies, which were planning, positive reinterpretation, and religious growth and coping; these results are similar to the study done by Marinaki in Greece where a correlation was found between characteristics of emotional intelligence and coping strategies.²⁹In a study of the correlation between emotional intelligence and coping strategies in Nigerian university students, a positive correlation was found between emotional intelligence and stress coping strategies. In addition, students with higher intelligence had a greater ability to cope with stress.³⁰A possible explanation, according to Albesher and Alsaeed, would be that increased emotional intelligence increases the use of positive coping methods, and in turn are instrumental in predicting coping methods in the face of stress.³¹

Various coping strategies such as meditation, sports, good nutrition, relaxation, humor and leisure activities have been studied to help reduce the effects of stress³². However, coping methods differ according to personality, emotional posture and the individual's interpretation of the situation.⁽³³⁾In our study the best scoring strategies were planning, positive reinterpretation and growth. These strategies were studied by Cohen which were rational thinking, which would be seen as the positive reinterpretation in a logical way of a stressful situation; individual imagination, which would be understood as future planning and the consequences of the current situation.⁶There are other very diverse strategies such as those pointed out by Higgins and Endler that are related to orientations that include emotions, avoidance and interactive task performance. the best immediate plan to address the current situation.⁹For Baqutayan and Mai noted that coping strategies would be the cognitive and behavioral efforts to control, reduce, and maintain externally imposed pressures such as family, friends, work, or college or internal such as emotional conflict, standard setting, or high expectations.¹⁰Kim and Han identified that increased emotional control and efficiency help to adapt and practice effective coping strategies to deal with stress.¹¹