South African healthcare workers report the highest levels of stress
The 2025 Profmed Stress Index found that South African professionals in the healthcare or medical sector report the highest levels of stress at 41.81%. The index examined stress in South African professionals over a decade.
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The respondents listed financial strain, workplace culture, systemic pressures, and lifestyle challenges as the main stressors.
This finding marks a stark contrast to the isolated nature of stress experienced by professionals in 2017.
“Stress is an inevitable part of life, especially in the working environment where pressures relating to deadlines, expectations and interpersonal relationships are part and parcel of building a career.”
"The Stress Index offers one of the most consistent longitudinal views into how stress has evolved over the past decade, and if anything, this year’s findings have reemphasised the pressing need for proactive, preventative support that can protect your health before it is compromised,” says Profmed’s Justine Lacy.
The key findings
- Stress has tangible and long-lasting implications for health: Almost 32% of respondents report that increasing pressure has impacted their ability to exercise, 33% claim that stress has impacted their sleep schedule, and just under 30% have experienced disrupted eating patterns. A further 44.05% of respondents feel overwhelmed despite coping strategies like physical exercise, mindfulness practices, and therapy.
- Healthcare and medical professionals have the highest levels of stress (41.81%): The top five sectors include jobs in finance and banking, legal, the built environment and “other”.
- Almost 11% of respondents use substances such as alcohol, caffeine, cannabis, and other illicit substances as coping mechanisms: Only 11% of those who use substances to cope have successfully tried to reduce their usage, while 17% do not feel the need to reduce their intake.
- Almost half of respondents expressed concern about the long-term impact of stress on their mental health: Just as many expressed an openness to therapy or counselling as a source of support, but 29% found these professional services to be unaffordable.
The shape of stress
Several key events have contributed to the current reality of stress in South Africa.
The Stress Index found that the Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally reshaped stress, introducing health anxiety, uncertainty, and lifestyle disruption.
Before 2020, the major stressor was financial pressure, although comparatively many professionals were able to make positive shifts towards healthier coping mechanisms.
The years following the pandemic were characterised by a fear of loss of income and the potential of losing a family member to Covid.
In 2022, with a severe economic downturn, systemic pressures (including the cost of living, job security, and unreliable infrastructure) overtook pandemic concerns as primary stress drivers.
During 2023 and 2024, work-life imbalance, toxic workplace environments and sustained financial pressure led to mounting stress levels, leading up to the present, where stress has become a multi-faceted reality.
Stress is no longer something professionals dip in and out of during busy periods, but for many, it has become part of the background noise of everyday life.
It’s carried quietly, often normalised, and too often dealt with alone.
What’s striking in the 2025 findings is how many professionals know the impact stress is having on their health, yet still feel unable to act on it.
Cost, lack of time and unsupportive work environments mean help is often delayed or avoided altogether.
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So, people push through. They adjust. They tell themselves it’s temporary, even when the signs say otherwise.
“Stress is not a personal weakness,” says Lacy.
“It is a natural response to sustained pressure. If we genuinely want healthier professionals, we can’t keep placing the responsibility solely on individuals to cope better.
“We need systems that step in earlier, and support people before stress takes hold.”