The improvement of the overall health of residents and the sound development of the hierarchical medical system require the support of a large number of qualified general practitioners (GPs) . As of the end of 2020, the GPs-population ratio in Guangdong reached 3.13/10 000, but the job satisfaction of GPs has not received enough attention.

To assess the level and determinants of overall job satisfaction among GPs in Guangdong's primary care settings.

A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted with 8 710 GPs selected from Guangdong's primary care settings by use of stratified, multistage cluster sampling from July 5th to 31st, 2021. The information collected include GPs' demographics, and services of GPs' teams as well as job satisfaction assessed using Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire-Short Form (MSQ-SF) . The determinants of job satisfaction were identified using the multiple linear regression model and analyzed using SPSS Statistics 24.0.

The survey obtained a response rate of 68.96% (6 006/8 710) . The overall satisfaction score of the respondent GPs was (3.70±0.87) points. The three highest-ranked items in terms of score were "The chance to do things for other people"〔 (4.03±0.64) points〕, "The chance to work aloneon the job"〔 (4.02±0.69) points〕, and "The way my co-workers get along with each other"〔 (3.99±0.61) points〕. The items scored relatively lower were "My pay and the amount of work I do"〔 (2.98±1.04) points], "The chances for advancement on this job"〔 (3.19±0.92) points〕, and "The praise I get for doing a good job"〔 (3.39±0.93) points〕. Multiple linear regression analysis found that annual income, administrative position, having a core position in the team, having privileged access to getting an appointment with experts working in secondary or tertiary medical institutions, providing long-term prescribing services for chronic diseases, delivering home sick-bed services, studying occupation-specific knowledge by oneself, and communicating with other teams for exchanging experience were associated with the job satisfaction of GPs (P<0.05) .

In a word, the overall job satisfaction level of GPs in Guangdong's primary care settings was relatively high. High annual income, administrative position, having privileged access to getting an appointment with experts working in secondary or tertiary medical institutions, delivering home sick-bed services and long-term prescribing services for chronic diseases, having a core position in the team, studying occupation-specific knowledge by oneself, communicating with other teams for exchanging experience, were associated with higher level of job satisfaction.