Burnout and Health Related Quality of Life among emergency physicians working at emergency at Tertiary Care Hospital in Lahore Pakistan

Shahid Sarwar; Asma Mahmood; Mahnoor Farooq Raja; Yasir Mahmud

doi:10.12669/pjms.39.5.7560

Burnout and Health Related Quality of Life among emergency physicians working at emergency at Tertiary Care Hospital in Lahore Pakistan

Pak J Med Sci. 2023 Sep-Oct;39(5):1372-1377. doi: 10.12669/pjms.39.5.7560.

Authors

Shahid Sarwar¹, Asma Mahmood², Mahnoor Farooq Raja³, Yasir Mahmud⁴

Affiliations

¹ Shahid Sarwar, MBBS, FCPS (Medicine), FCPS (Gastroenterology) MCPS-HPE, FRCP (Edin), Professor of Medicine, Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore/ Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.
² Asma Mahmood, MBBS House Officer, Department of Medicine, Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore/ Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.
³ Mahnoor Farooq Raja, MBBS House Officer, Department of Medicine, Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore/ Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.
⁴ Yasir Mahmud, MBBS, FCPS (Medicine) Consultant Physician, Department of Medicine, Allama Iqbal Medical College Lahore/ Jinnah Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan.

Abstract

Objective: To determine frequency of burnout in emergency physicians and to identify its impact on their health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, physicians from departments with emergency cover of Jinnah Hospital Lahore were included. Their burnout and HRQOL scores using Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Short Form (SF)-36 respectively were determined in March 2022. Burnout scores were graded as low, moderate and high and were correlated with domains of HRQOL using chi X² and analysis of variance (ANOVA).

Results: One hundred fifty physicians were included with mean age 26.2 (±2.59), male to female ratio 0.78:1 (66/84) and House Officer (HO) to Postgraduate Resident (PGR) ratio 1.94:1 (99/51). High burnout was identified in 76 (50.7%) participants while 48 (32%) had moderate and 26 (17.3%) had low burnout. Males scored better than female physicians in vitality (0.008), general mental health (0.004), and mental component summary (0.01) domains of HRQOL. Doctors with high burnout had significantly lower scores in both physical component summary (p-value 0.004) and mental component summary (p-value < 0.0001) domains of HRQOL.

Conclusion: Physicians working in emergency settings have high frequency of burnout and it adversely affects their mental and physical health related quality of life.

Keywords: Burnout; Emergency; Health related quality of life; Physicians.