Factors associated with work-life conflict among pharmacists: a cross-sectional study in Jordan

Work-life conflict affects workforce stability, quality of care, and health-system performance. Pharmacists are essential healthcare providers in community, hospital, clinical, and primary care settings, but they frequently experience workload-related pressures. Limited evidence is available regarding work-family and family-work conflict among pharmacists in Jordan. This cross-sectional study examined work-life conflict among pharmacists in Jordan and its associated demographic, work-related, and psychological factors. Between January and July 2023, an anonymous online survey link was circulated by convenience sampling through professional pharmacists' messaging groups and investigator networks. The questionnaire collected sociodemographic and work-related data and included the two five-item Netemeyer work-family conflict and family-work conflict subscales. Factors associated with high conflict were examined using simple and multiple logistic regression. Among 405 pharmacists with valid aggregate outcome data, 122 (30.1%) met the exploratory high-conflict definition; the adjusted model included 369 complete cases and 120 high-conflict events. In the model, pharmacists with an employed spouse had higher odds of high work-life conflict than those without an employed spouse or those who were not married (aOR = 2.98, 95% CI: 1.21-7.37, p = 0.018). Higher meaningful work score (aOR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.12-1.95, p = 0.005), DASS stress score (aOR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.02-1.14, p = 0.007), and burnout score (aOR = 1.08, 95% CI: 1.04-1.12, p < 0.001) were independently associated with higher odds of high work-life conflict. Female gender (aOR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.23-0.90, p = 0.022) and part-time staff-pharmacist status (aOR = 0.38, 95% CI: 0.16-0.91, p = 0.030) showed lower adjusted odds. The inverse DASS depression coefficient (aOR = 0.94, 95% CI: 0.89-0.99, p = 0.021) emerged only after adjustment and was treated as model-dependent, not as evidence of a protective effect. Within this convenience sample, work-life conflict was common and several demographic, occupational, and psychological variables were associated with the exploratory high-conflict outcome. These cross-sectional findings are hypothesis-generating and support prospective evaluation of staffing, scheduling, workload, and organizational-support strategies; they do not establish national prevalence or intervention effects.