Study of the Relationship Between Self-Efficacy, General Health and Burnout Among Iranian Health Workers

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship between self-efficacy, general health and burnout of the staff at Shahroud University of Medical Sciences. METHODS: In 2015, 249 staff at Shahroud University of Medical Sciences (from a total reference population of 520 staff members) were selected through stratified random sampling. To collect the data, Sherer self-efficacy Scale, General Health Questionnaire and Maslach Burnout Inventory were used. The collected data were analyzed through ANOVA, Pearson correlation and Chi-square tests using SPSS 16. The relationship between self-efficacy, general health and burnout (latent factors) were studied using structural equation modeling with Stata 14. RESULTS: The mean age of participants was 36.97 ± 7.60 years, and the mean number of years work experience was 12.29 ± 7.57. The mean scores of general health, self-efficacy and burnout were 28.24 ± 11.14, 62.30 ± 9.21 and 81.67 ± 22.18, respectively. The results of the study showed a statistically significant relationship between self-efficacy and general health which equals −0.32. A statistically significant relationship also existed between burnout scores and general health scores (beta = 0.78). CONCLUSION: The results showed that high self-efficacy improves the general health of employees at the Shahroud University of Medical Sciences and reduces burnout. Special attention should be paid to self-efficacy in the prevention of burnout.