[Burnout in primary care doctors of the province of cáceres].

OBJECTIVES

To analyse the degree of professional burnout in primary care doctors from our province and the effect of various factors.Design. Descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Primary care (PC) in the province.

PARTICIPANTS

All the PC doctors in the province of Cáceres (n=255).

MAIN MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS

Self-administered anonymous questionnaire: the Maslach Burnout Inventory that evaluates Depersonalisation (DP), Self-esteem (SE), and Emotional Exhaustion (EE); social and personal variables, work data, personal questions and measures taken if there was work stress. Student s t test, ANOVA (means), and Chi-square or Fisher test (percentages) were used. 157 valid questionnaires were returned (62% response rate). Mean age was 41.5 years old 7.2; 75% were male, 80.2% married, 73.2% had tenure, 48.9% worked in towns, and their mean case-load was 40.5 16.5 patients/day. Mean values found were: DP, 8.3 5.8; SE, 35.2 8.4; EE, 22 11.3; 65.8% scored high on one of the three. For EE mean scores were significantly higher in men, doctors with tenure, in towns, those with >10 years seniority or who saw >40 patients a day. 50% had had psycho-physical disorders in the previous 3 months; 33% withstood a lot of bureaucracy; both groups had EE averages. Dedicating <2 hours a day to leisure was associated with >EE; and being a tutor with a significantly higher level of burnout. Disorders in the family or social/work sphere were associated with high levels of DP and EE (P<.001).

CONCLUSIONS

Like other studies, we found a moderate level of burnout in our sample. Seniority, social/labour or family conflict, and certain personal and job characteristics were associated with high burnout.