Prevalence of burnout and its correlates among residents in a tertiary medical center in Kerala, India: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE: Residents work in emotionally demanding environments with multiple stressors. The risk for burnout is high in them and it has significant negative consequences for their career. Burnout is also associated with consequences in terms of physical and mental health including insomnia, cardiovascular disease, depression and suicidal ideation. Thus, the study aimed to study the prevalence of burn out and its correlates among interns and residents at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Cross Sectional Study at Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. METHODS: It was a cross Sectional study of 558 interns and residents of Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India. Data was collected which included the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory [CBI] which assesses burnout in the dimensions of Personal burnout, Work burnout and Patient related burnout, with a cut off score of 50 for each dimension. Age, sex, year of study, department the resident belonged to, or an intern, junior resident or a super speciality senior resident (resident doing super speciality course after their post graduate masters degree) were the correlates assessed. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Univariate analysis. RESULTS: More than one third of the participants were found to have burnout in one or another dimension of the CBI. Burnout was found to be the highest among the interns in the domains of personal burnout (64.05 %) and patient related burnout (68.62 %) and in junior residents for work related burnout (40%). Super specialty senior residents had the least prevalence of burnout in all three dimensions. Among the residents, Non Medical/Non Surgical residents had the least prevalence of burnout in all three dimensions, whereas surgical speciality residents had the highest of personal burnout (57.92 %) and Medical speciality residents had the highest patient related burnout (27.13%). Both medical and surgical specialty residents had equal prevalence of work burnout. The study also showed that as the number of years of residency increased, the burnout also increased in all three dimensions. A between gender difference in burnout was not noticed in our study. CONCLUSIONS: Burnout was found to be present in a large number of residents in our study. Nationwide studies and assessment of more correlates will be needed to understand this phenomenon and also for formulating measures for preventing and managing it.