Burnout, working conditions and gender - results from the northern Sweden MONICA Study

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Urban Janlert¹  Sofia Norlund²  Lisbeth Slunga Birgander²  Bernt Lindahl²  Christina Reuterwall³  Jonas Höög⁴ 

[1] Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Epidemiology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden;Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden;Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Occupational Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden;Research and Development Department, Jämtland County Council, Östersund, Sweden;Department of Sociology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden;

关键词: Sick Leave;    Emotional Exhaustion;    Maslach Burnout Inventory;    Work Related Factor;    Psychosocial Work Factor;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-10-326

 received in 2009-10-13, accepted in 2010-06-09,  发布年份 2010

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSick-leave because of mental and behavioural disorders has increased considerably in Sweden since the late nineties, and especially in women. The aim of this study was to assess the level of burnout in the general working population in northern Sweden and analyse it's relation to working conditions and gender.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study the survey from the MONICA-study (Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular Disease) in northern Sweden 2004 was used. A burnout instrument, the Shirom Melamed Burnout Questionnaire (SMBQ), was incorporated in the original survey which was sent to a random sample of 2500 individuals with a response rate of 76%. After including only actively working people, aged 25-64 years, our study population consisted of 1000 participants (497 women and 503 men). ANOVA and multiple linear regression models were used.ResultsThe prevalence of a high level of burnout (SMBQ >4.0) was 13%. Women had a higher level of burnout than men with the most pronounced difference in the age group 35-44 years. In both sexes the level of burnout decreased with age. Demand and control at work, and job insecurity were related to burnout. In women the level of education, socioeconomic position, work object, and working varying hours were of importance. Interaction effects were found between sex and work object, and sex and working hours. In a multiple regression analysis almost half of the gender difference could be explained by work related and life situational factors.ConclusionsWorking life conditions contributed to the level of burnout in this actively working sample from the general population in northern Sweden. Especially in women, socioeconomic position was associated with burnout. The high level of burnout in women compared to men was partly explained by more unfavourable working conditions and life situational factors. Efforts to level out gender differences in burnout should probably focus on improving both working and socioeconomic conditions for women.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Norlund et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.