Prevalence and correlators of burnout among health professionals during different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in China

Frontiers in Psychiatry

Psychiatry

Jing Wen¹  Qiuhui Lei²  Zhehao He²  Zhizhong Wang³  Xiuquan Shi⁴  Zhengshan Qin⁵  Jun Liu⁵  Qinglin Yang⁵  Zeyu Meng⁵ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan, China;Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health at Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China;Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health at Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China;The First Dongguan Affiliated Hospital, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China;Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics, School of Public Health, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, Guizhou, China;Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Public Health at Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China;

关键词: mental health;    COVID-19;    cross-sectional study;    health professionals;    burnout;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1156313

 received in 2023-02-01, accepted in 2023-03-24,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundPersistently increased workload and stress occurred in health professionals (HPs) during the past 3 years as the COVID-19 pandemic continued. The current study seeks to explore the prevalence of and correlators of HPs' burnout during different stages of the pandemic.MethodsThree repeated online studies were conducted in different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic: wave 1: after the first peak of the pandemic, wave 2: the early period of the zero-COVID policy, and wave 3: the second peak of the pandemic in China. Two dimensions of burnout, emotional exhaustion (EE) and declined personal accomplishment (DPA), were assessed using Human Services Survey for Medical Personnel (MBI-HSMP), a 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and a 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) to assess mental health conditions. An unconditional logistic regression model was employed to discern the correlators.ResultsThere was an overall prevalence of depression (34.9%), anxiety (22.5%), EE (44.6%), and DPA (36.5%) in the participants; the highest prevalence of EE and DPA was discovered in the first wave (47.4% and 36.5%, respectively), then the second wave (44.9% and 34.0%), and the third wave had the lowest prevalence of 42.3% and 32.2%. Depressive symptoms and anxiety were persistently correlated with a higher prevalence risk of both EE and DPA. Workplace violence led to a higher prevalence risk of EE (wave 1: OR = 1.37, 95% CI: 1.16–1.63), and women (wave 1: OR = 1.19, 95% CI: 1.00–1.42; wave 3: OR =1.20, 95% CI:1.01–1.44) and those living in a central area (wave 2: OR = 1.66, 95% CI: 1.20–2.31) or west area (wave 2: OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.26–1.87) also had a higher prevalence risk of EE. In contrast, those over 50 years of age (wave 1: OR = 0.61, 95% CI: 0.39–0.96; wave 3: OR = 0.60, 95% CI: 0.38–0.95) and who provided care to patients with COVID-19 (wave 2: OR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.57–0.92) had a lower risk of EE. Working in the psychiatry section (wave 1: OR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.01–1.89) and being minorities (wave 2: OR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.04–1.58) had a higher risk of DPA, while those over 50 years of age had a lower risk of DPA (wave 3: OR = 0.56, 95% CI: 0.36–0.88).ConclusionThis three-wave cross-sectional study revealed that the prevalence of burnout among health professionals was at a high level persistently during the different stages of the pandemic. The results suggest that functional impairment prevention resources and programs may be inadequate and, as such, continuous monitoring of these variables could provide evidence for developing optimal strategies for saving human resources in the coming post-pandemic era.

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Copyright © 2023 Qin, He, Yang, Meng, Lei, Wen, Shi, Liu and Wang.