Purpose of the study: The present study was done to assess the job satisfaction level of family physicians working in primary health care center of Al-Ahsa district Of Saudi Arabia. Introduction: Primary healthcare is considered the mainstay of providing comprehensive and continuous health care services for everyone in the community. It is the first level of contact of individuals, families, and communities with their national healthcare systems and services. With the paradigm shift toward primary healthcare, however, Family physicians are facing many challenges in their workplaces that can affect their performance resulting in low satisfaction level for their patients and themselves. Assessment of the job satisfaction level of the working family physicians and the factors that can influence their satisfaction are important for formulating a family physician-friendly atmosphere. Materials and Method: An analytic cross-sectional study was done at the Ministry of Health (MOH) Primary Health Care centers (PHCs) in Al-Ahsa. All seventy-eight family physicians (FPs) working at different PHCs of the Al-Ahsa region were identified as the study sample. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire with job satisfaction model. Apart from socio-demographic data, the questionnaires consisted of questions for factors encountered by FPs. Furthermore, the level of satisfaction was measured by two different methods, as subjective satisfaction by asking one sentence subjective question, and as objective satisfaction by asking 13 objective questions. The highest possible score for objective assessment was 65 and the lowest score was 13. The objective satisfaction level was measured by the summation of Likert scale scores of several items in the questionnaire. Then the mean was calculated by dividing the total score of each participant by the number of tested items. The data were stored and analyzed by Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 program. All variables were coded before entry into a computer for analysis. All continuous data were presented in the form of mean, range, and standard deviation. A p-value of ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: A total of 78 FPs working in MOH PHCs in Al-Ahsa participated in this study with a response rate of 100%. The mean age of participating physicians was 36.72 ± 6.495 years (range 30-64 years) The percentage of male physicians was 54%. Also, the average number of years working as a family physician after qualification was 5.35 years ± 4.7 SD. A total of sixty percent (N=47) of the participants have a subjective self-estimated satisfaction about their job with a direct question "How do you rate your job satisfaction level?" There was no significant difference between physicians' gender, qualification, accreditation, age, or the number of years after qualification and the level of subjective satisfaction (p > 0.05). More than fifty- six percent of the participants were dissatisfied objectively. There was no significant relationship between objective satisfaction and demographic data (gender, number of children, qualification, and current SCFHS accreditation). There was a significant difference in the mean score of objective satisfaction with the increasing age (P=0.02) and more years of experience (p=0.008). The logistic regression analysis revealed the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for those with higher experience years to be 0.87, 95% CI (0.78 - 0.97). The OR for those older was 0.91, 95% CI (0.84 - 0.99). Conclusion: The majority of our FPs were subjectively satisfied with their job, while less than half were objectively satisfied. Family medicine is a very demanding specialty. Limited resources and administrative bureaucracy were the most highlighted factors of dissatisfaction, while ongoing and strong relations with patient and colleague, and opportunity of teaching were the top ranked factors of satisfaction.
