title: [The effort of being male: a survey on gender and burnout].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stress at work affects more than 40 million people in the European Union - around 22% of workers - and is the second most reported work-related health problem. Gender does not seem to be a constant predictive factor for burnout: some studies showed that women suffer more from burnout than males, other studies proved that males report higher burnout scores while others did not detect any difference at all. These results may be due to gender-related stereotypes, or could even reiflect the preponderance of a specific gender in some jobs.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To determine whether gender might be among the relevant variables in job burnout studies.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 2008-2009 a study on burnout was carried out in a Healthcare Trust in northern Italy. The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) were distributed to physicians, administrative staff and auxiliary personnel of hospital departments and local services.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of l, 604 JCQ's and 1,604 MBI's were analysed, corresponding to 37% of the distributed tests. Results of logistic regression showed that gender, shift work and a low score in relationships with superiors were significantly associated with burnout. Considering the tasks of physicians and nurses, the burnout frequency was 3.78% for physicians and 1.97% for nurses, with higher percentages in males than in females. Women with children reported an average burnout frequency that was lower than the average of the whole population studied while men with children had a double burnout frequency compared to the average.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Male gender is significantly associated with a burnout condition. Moreover, our findings have shown that physicians experience an excess burnout compared to nurses although this excess did not achieve statistical significance when taking into account distribution according to gender in the two professions.
authors.affiliation: Servizio aziendale di medicina del lavoro dell'azienda sanitaria dell'Alto Adige, Bolzano. Guido.Maccacaro@asbz.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Maccacaro
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Di Tommaso
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ferrai
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonatti
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bombana
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Merseburger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000488:Allied Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006270:Health Facility Administrators / Q000523:psychology; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D008571:Men / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D010564:Personnel, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014930:Women / Q000523:psychology; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance