Health-related attitudes, behaviors and burnout in intern medical officers and their effects on self-reported patient care in a developing country

BACKGROUND: Intern Medical Officers (IMOs) in Sri Lanka face significant challenges due to heavy patient load and scarcity of resources. AIMS: To assess IMOs' level of burnout, associated factors and the effects on self-reported patient care in comparison to post-intern Relief House Officers (RHOs). METHODS: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among IMOs and RHOs in two leading tertiary care hospitals in Sri Lanka. The level of burnout was assessed using Maslach Burnout Index. The self-reported health-related attitudes, practices, level of burnout, and their associations with patient care were compared between IMOs and RHOs. RESULTS: We studied 114 participants (70 (61.4%) IMOs and 44 (38.6%) RHOs). IMOs were not involved in regular exercises (χ(2)(1) = 19.8, p = 0.000), skipped meals frequently (χ(2)(1) = 29.3, p = 0.000), and had a poor sleep quality (χ(2)(1) = 35.7, p = 0.000) compared to RHOs. Overall, 46.5%, 95.5%, and 86.7% of the participants were having moderate-to-high emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and sense of poor personal achievement. The exhaustion and depersonalization levels were significantly higher among IMOs. Emotional exhaustion was significantly associated with poor sleep (U = 923.0, p = 0.014). Self-reported patient care negatively correlated with exhaustion (r(s)(112) = − 0.263, p = 0.005) and depersonalization (r(s)(112) = − 0.491, p = 0.000), while having positive attitudes correlated with better patient care (r(s)(112) = 0.208, p = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of burnout in IMOs in Sri Lanka is high, which, in turn, negatively correlates with patient care. IMOs face significant challenges in self-care, while their poor sleep perturbs daytime activities and conceivably interferes with patient care. Therefore, we recommend introduction of preventive measures to mitigate burnout in early-career physicians, particularly IMOs, to improve both self and patient care. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11845-021-02874-y.