[Burnout among doctors and its correlations with health, life satisfaction and sleep].

INTRODUCTION: Burnout is common among health care providers and doctors.

AIM: The correlations between burnout and health, psychosomatic symptoms, life satisfaction and sleep were investigated.

METHOD: An online quantitative cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to 186 doctors. Burnout was assessed by the means of the 21-item questionnaire of Pines and Aronson (1981). Data were analysed with chi-square probe, Mann-Whitney test, correlational analysis and linear regression.

RESULTS: Level of burnout correlated negatively with age (p = 0.040; r = -0.151), years spent in the health care system (p = 0.027; r = -0.162) and positive well-being (p<0.001, r = -0.670), while there was a negative correlation with negative well-being (p<0.001; r = 0.585) and life satisfaction (p<0.001; r = -0.532). Doctors with burnout reported worse health (p<0.001), more frequent psychosomatic symptoms (p<0.001), tumours (p = 0.007), allergies (p = 0.030), psychiatric disorders (p = 0.025) and sleep disturbances.

CONCLUSIONS: One-third of the doctors were affected by burnout in the present study. Higher age and having more children served as a protective factor.