Prevalence of burnout among musculoskeletal radiologists.
OBJECTIVE
Burnout is a job-related psychological syndrome with three aspects: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and perceived lack of personal accomplishment. Burnout is associated with deleterious effects on both workers and their work. When burnout affects physicians, their well-being, longevity, and care of patients are at risk. Recent studies concerning physician burnout treat specialists such as radiologists as one group. We studied burnout in musculoskeletal (MSK) subspecialist radiologists.


METHODS
An institutional review board exemption was obtained. Society of Skeletal Radiology members received invitations to an anonymous survey that included questions from the Maslach Burnout Inventory ™ (MBI) measuring all three aspects of burnout. The response rate was 36.4% (433/1190).


RESULTS
The prevalence of emotional exhaustion was 61.7% (255/413), of depersonalization 53.3% (219/411), and of perceived lack of personal accomplishment 39.6% (161/407). Only 19.5% (79/405) of MSK radiologists reported no burnout, while 80.5% (326/405) reported burnout along one or more dimensions. For all three dimensions, the prevalence was higher and the mean severity was worse for private practice compared with academic practice. The prevalence of burnout was affected more by practice setting than by gender. Burnout prevalence and severity also varied systematically with years since completion of training.


CONCLUSIONS
Among MSK radiologists, we found a much higher prevalence and greater severity of burnout than has been previously reported for radiologists and other physicians. There were differences in prevalence and severity of burnout among practice settings, genders, and longevity cohorts.
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, 4245 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA.
Felix S
FS
Chew
Department of Sociology, Central Washington University, 400 E. University Way, Ellensburg, WA, 98926, USA.
Michael J
MJ
Mulcahy
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, 4245 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA. jporrino@uw.edu.
Jack A
JA
Porrino
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, 4245 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA.
Hyojeong
H
Mulcahy
Department of Radiology, University of Washington, 4245 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA, 98105, USA.
Annemarie
A
Relyea-Chew
D000046:Academic Medical Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000124:Achievement; D002055:Burnout, Professional / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003861:Depersonalization / Q000453:epidemiology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009141:Musculoskeletal System / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D015995:Prevalence; D011331:Private Practice / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000072177:Radiologists / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
Burnout; Musculoskeletal; Radiology