Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Apr 1:14:12.
doi: 10.1186/s12960-016-0108-9.

Workload, mental health and burnout indicators among female physicians

Zsuzsa Győrffy  1 , Diana Dweik  2 , Edmond Girasek  3
Affiliations

Workload, mental health and burnout indicators among female physicians

Zsuzsa Győrffy et al. Hum Resour Health. .

Abstract

Background: Female doctors in Hungary have worse indicators of physical and mental health compared with other professional women. We aimed to cast light on possible indicators of mental health, workload, and burnout of female physicians.

Methods: Two time-points (T) were compared, in 2003 (T1 n = 408) and 2013 (T2 n = 2414), based on two nationally representative surveys of female doctors, and comparison made with data from other professional control groups. Independent samples t test or chi-squared test was used both for the two time-point comparison and the comparison between the index and the control groups. The background factors of sleep disorders and burnout were assessed by binary logistic regression analysis.

Results: No significant differences in the rates of depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts and attempts were detected between the 2003 and 2013 cohorts, but the prevalence of sleep disorders increased. The workload increased, and there was less job satisfaction in 2013 than in 2003, coupled to more stressful or difficult work-related situations. The personal accomplishment component of burnout significantly decreased in line with the declining work-related satisfaction. Compared to the professional control groups, the prevalence of depressive symptoms, suicide attempts, and sleep disorders was higher among female physicians at both time-points. The number of workplaces, frequency of work-related stressful situations, and intensive role conflict was associated with sleep disorders and decreased personal accomplishment.

Conclusions: In comparison with the other professional groups, female doctors had worse mental health indicators with regard to depression, suicidal ideas, and sleep disorders both in 2003 and 2013 while within professional strata the changes seemed to be less. Increasing workload had a clear impact on sleep disorders and the personal accomplishment dimension of burnout.

Keywords: Burnout; Female physicians; Mental health; Sleep disorders; Workload.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Wallace JE, Lemaire JB, Ghali WA. Physician wellness: a missing quality indicator. Lancet. 2009;374(9702):1714–1721. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61424-0. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Firth-Cozens J. Improving the health of psychiatrist. Adv Psychiatr Treat. 2007;13(3):161–168. doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.106.003277. - DOI
    1. Tyssen R. Health problems and the use of health services among physicians: a review article with particular emphasis on Norwegian studies. Ind Health. 2007;45(5):599–610. doi: 10.2486/indhealth.45.599. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Tyssen R, Hem E, Gude T, Grønvold NT, Ekeberg O, Vaglum P. Lower life satisfaction in physicians compared with a general population sample: a 10 year longitudinal, nationwide study of course and predictors. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2009;44(1):47–54. doi: 10.1007/s00127-008-0403-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Túry F, Lajtai L. Profession and personality. Psychological problems of physicians and medical students. [Hivatás és személyiség. Az orvostanhallgatók és orvosok pszichológiai problémái.] In: Kopp M, Berghammer R, editors. Medical psychology. [Orvosi pszichológia.] Budapest: Medicina Kiadó; 2005. pp. 240–248.

Publication types