[Burnout syndrome: prevalence and associated factors among workers in a district hospital].
OBJECTIVE
Burnout syndrome refers to a kind of occupational stress that can have psychosomatic, behavioral, emotional, familial, and social repercussions; it can also cause absenteeism and loss of efficacy at work. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of burnout among staff in a district hospital, as well as the personal and working characteristics associated with the syndrome.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was designed in which a representative random sample of 300 workers, stratified according to professional group, was given the Maslach Burnout Inventory to measure the degree of burnout. This questionnaire has three subscales: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal achievement (PA).


RESULTS
A high degree of burnout was found for EE in 13.9% of the staff interviewed, in 11.1% for DP and in 6.6% for PA. None of the interviewees had high scores for all three scales while 27% had a high level of burnout in at least one of the scales. In the multivariate analysis, professional category and sex were statistically significantly associated with a high level of burnout.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of burnout in Mataró Hospital (Spain) is relatively low and depends mainly on sex and professional group.
Pera
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Unitat de Recerca. Fundació Jaume Esperalba i Terrades del Consorci Sanitari del Maresme. Mataró. Barcelona. Spain.
Serra-Prat
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M
D000328:Adult; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010564:Personnel, Hospital; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires