Prevalence of burnout in medical students in China: A meta-analysis of observational studies

This meta-analysis aimed to estimate the prevalence of burnout among medical students in China. A systematic search from the following electronic databases: China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wangfang database, VIP database, Chinese biomedical literature database, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Google Scholar was independently conducted by 2 reviewers from inception to September 2019. The data were analyzed using stata software Version 11. Heterogeneity was assessed using I(2) tests, and publication bias was evaluated using funnel plots and Egger's test. The source of heterogeneity among subgroups was determined by subgroup analysis of different parameters. A total of 48 articles with a sample size of 29,020 met the inclusion criteria. The aggregate prevalence of learning burnout was 45.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 38.1%–53.8%). The prevalence rate of high emotional exhaustion was 37.5% (95% CI: 21.4%–53.7%). The percentage was 44.0% (95% CI: 29.2%–58.8%) for low personal accomplishment. The prevalence rate was 36.0% (95% CI: 23.0%–48.9%) in depersonalization dimension. In the subgroup analysis by specialty, the prevalence of burnout was 30.3% (95% CI: 28.6%–32.0%) for clinical medicine and 43.8% (95% CI: 41.8%–45.8%) for other medical specialties. The total prevalence of burnout between men and women was 46.4% (95% CI: 44.8%–47.9%) and 46.6% (95% CI: 45.5%–47.6%), respectively. The prevalence of burnout with Rong Lian's scale was 43.7% (42.1%–45.2%), and that with the other scales was 51.4% (50.4%–52.4%). The prevalence rates were 62.9% (61.3%–64.6%), 58.7% (56.3%–61.1%), 46.5% (42.9%–50.2%), and 56.0% (51.6%–60.4%) from Grades 1 to 4, respectively. There was a statistically significant difference among the different grades (P = .000). Our findings suggest a high prevalence of burnout among medical students. Society, universities, and families should take appropriate measures and allot more care to prevent burnout among medical students.