Burnout Syndrome Prevalence and associated factors among Physicians in Nablus, Palestine.

¹Souad Belkebir, ¹Sabrina Russo, ¹Shahd Amer and ¹ Thana Musallam

¹ Faculty of Medicine and health Sciences, An-Najah National University

[email protected]

 

Background

Burnout Syndrome (BS), a situation of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and reduced personal accomplishment (PA) has been increasingly observed and studied among healthcare workers around the world. However, data regarding burnout prevalence and associated factors among Palestinian physicians are scarce.

Methods

A cross sectional study among 256 physicians working in Nablus city hospitals was carried out from December 2014 to January 2015. The English version of the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to measure the BS Prevalence. The questionnaire elicited information about sociodemographic and work characteristics. Descriptive, analytical and multivariate analyses were performed using The Stata Statistical Package v 13.Significance was considered at p value < 0.05.

Results

From the 256 physicians, 179 returned the questionnaire (response rate=70%).The prevalence of BS was 31%, from which 89% corresponded to men. The most prevalent dimensions of BS were high EE (79.9%), moderate DP (63.1%) and high PA (45.3 %). Mean age of participants was 35yo (SD 10, 4). 89% were men and 70% married. Mean of Number of children (NChil) was 1,51 (SD 1.61) and mean of years since graduation (YGrad) was 9.6 (SD 9.5). 35% smoke and 2% consume alcohol. 57% were General practitioners, 51% earning less than 1000JD monthly and 11% in governmental settings.85% were working in teamwork, 86% did night shifts, 92% sleeping less than 8h daily and the mean of patients seen daily was 28, 7 (SD 24, 54).45% were satisfied with their job while 31% were highly satisfied. The bivariate analysis showed a significant association between BS and: Age (OR=0.94, 95%CI 0.87-0.96), being Single (OR=2.04, 95%CI 1,02-4.05), NChil (OR=0.72, 95%CI 0.57-0.9), YGrad (OR=0.89 95%CI 0.84-0.95),being specialist (OR=0.24 95%CI 0.11-0.5),teamwork (OR=3.9, 95%CI 1.13-13.76),salary 1000 to 3000JD (OR= 0.23, 95%CI 0.11-0.49) and  job dissatisfaction (OR= 4.89 95%CI 1.8-12.7).The final multivariate analysis showed a significant association mainly with high job satisfaction (OR=0.21 95%CI 0.07-0.53).

Conclusion

The prevalence of BS among physicians was within the international ranges although the EE was higher than the reported in the literature meaning that most of the participants were at high risk to develop BS. Further studies including all Palestinian physicians are required to understand the problem in depth and to support the results.

Conference Title

“The Sixth Biomedical Research Symposium”.

Conference Country

Palestine

Conference Date

April 9, 2016 - April 9, 2016

Conference Sponsor

The Palestinian Forum for Medical Research (PFMR) in conjunction with the Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, and Bethlehem University