title: Female nurses' burnout symptoms: No association with the Hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid (HPT) axis.
abstract: Across the world, hospital nurses experience a high level of burnout. Exploring biochemical markers of burnout could help to understand physiological changes and may provide useful evidence for preventing burnout symptoms. The current study included 94 female nurses from one Chinese third-level hospital. The Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) was used to investigate burnout symptoms: emotional exhaustion, cynicism, reduced professional efficacy, as well as the burnout average. The HPT axis was tested by checking blood levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), thyroxin (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3). Nonparametric tests showed that no significant difference in biochemical markers was found between the burnout and non-burnout groups. Spearman correlation analysis found that biochemical markers had no significant association with burnout symptoms, except weakly negative associations between reduced professional efficacy and blood pressure and heart rate. These findings show a rather poor correlation of the HPT axis on burnout symptoms. Expanding the biochemical index of the HPT axis, comparing well-defined samples and using longitudinal studies are recommended for further studies.
authors.affiliation: Nursing Psychology Research Center of Xiangya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Yufang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, 3800, Melbourne Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Louisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Nursing Psychology Research Center of Xiangya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Yuanhui
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, 3800, Melbourne Victoria, Australia; Peninsula Health, Hastings Road Frankston, Australia.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Plummer
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing and Midwifery, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University, 3800, Melbourne Victoria, Australia.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Cross
authors.affiliation: Nursing Psychology Research Center of Xiangya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Nursing Psychology Research Center of Xiangya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, Hunan, China.
authors.forename: Yizhen
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: Nursing Psychology Research Center of Xiangya Nursing School, Central South University, Changsha, 410013, Hunan, China. Electronic address: jpzhang1965@163.com.
authors.forename: Jingping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007030:Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000097:blood / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D013961:Thyroid Gland / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013972:Thyrotropin / Q000097:blood; D013974:Thyroxine / Q000097:blood; D014284:Triiodothyronine / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D014284:Triiodothyronine; D013972:Thyrotropin; D013974:Thyroxine
keywords: Burnout; Cynicism; Emotional exhaustion; Hypothalamic-pituitary-thyroid; Reduced professional efficacy; Stress