Euro-Burn I: Assessment of burnout syndrome in health workers in a mediterranean country during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Background: Burnout syndrome (BS) has a negative impact among health professionals. Aims: Our research objective is to quantify the level of burnout in health workers of the Spanish National Health System during the COVID-19 pandemic using and comparing two independent measurement instruments. Methods: Cross-sectional, descriptive and multicenter study conducted through an anonymous online survey among health workers of the National Health System, measuring the level of burnout using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). Results: A total of 448 questionnaires were analyzed, the mean age of the participants was 43.53 years (range: 20-64), 365 (81.5%) women. 161 (35.9%) participants presented BS measured with the MBI and 304 (67.9%) measured with the CBI. Regarding work contract, those who had greater job stability presented a higher degree of cynicism with respect to the eventual ones (p = .010), the eventual ones presenting higher mean scores in professional efficacy (p = .034). Urban workers had higher scores of exhaustion (p < .001) and cynicism (p < .001) than those living in rural areas. When comparing both tests, a high predictive value for exhaustion and cynicism was found to measure BS through the CBI (AUC = 0.92 and 0.84, respectively) and a low AUC with respect to the predictive value for efficacy (AUC = 0, 59). Conclusions: The results obtained show a high level of BS among the health workers who participated in our study. Both tests have an excellent correlation in the degree of exhaustion and cynicism, but not in efficacy. The BS measurement must be performed with at least two validated instruments to increase its reliability.

Automated summary

This study quantified the level of burnout among health workers in the Spanish National Health System during the COVID-19 pandemic using two independent measurement instruments. The results showed a high level of burnout among the participants, with both tests showing a good correlation in exhaustion and cynicism but a lower correlation in efficacy.