Burnout and Its Relationship with Demographic and Job-Related Variables among Dentists in Lithuania: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Although burnout has been described as a serious hazard for personal and professional lives and has been surveyed among dentists in many countries, no study has been published regarding burnout among dentists in Lithuania. This study aimed to evaluate the burnout level among Lithuanian dentists and its association with demographic variables, job satisfaction, and other job-related variables. The data were collected among dentists online or during professional conferences while using an anonymous questionnaire (n = 380). The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was used to evaluate the burnout level. A Poisson regression was applied for the analysis of relationships between variables. We observed that 42.3% of the respondents had a high emotional exhaustion (EE) (95% confidence interval (CI): 37.4-42.3%), while 18.7% (95% CI: 15.0-22.9%) and 28,2% (95% CI: 23.4-32.6%) had high depersonalization (DP) and low personal accomplishment (PA), respectively. Nonetheless, 15.3% (95% CI: 11.8-18.9%) of the study population experienced a high level of overall burnout. An original job satisfaction index was elaborated. It was significantly associated with sum scores of all burnout dimensions: with the EE sum score (Ratio of Sum Score Means (RSSM) 1.54; 95% CI: 1.46-1.62), DP sum score (RSSM 1.59; 95% CI: 1.45-1.74), and PA sum score (RSSM 0.88; 95% CI: 0.84-0.92). It was concluded that Lithuanian dentists can be characterised by high burnout intensity and high prevalence of burnout, being especially evident in emotional exhaustion. The dentist with low job satisfaction appeared to be the most vulnerable to all burnout dimensions.

Keywords: Lithuania; Maslach Burnout Inventory; burnout; dentist; job satisfaction; prevalence; risk factors.

Figure 1

Sum score levels by MBI dimensions. Abbreviations: EE—emotional exhaustion; DP—depersonalization; PA—personal accomplishment. “+” indicates proportions assigned to high burnout.

Figure 2

Percentage of high emotional exhaustion (EE), high depersonalization (DP), and low personal accomplishment, by job satisfaction scores. The respondents with a job satisfaction score of −6 or −5 were pooled into one group. T_CA—Cochran-Armitage statistic.

Figure 2

Percentage of high emotional exhaustion (EE), high depersonalization (DP), and low personal accomplishment, by job satisfaction scores. The respondents with a job satisfaction score of −6 or −5 were pooled into one group. T_CA—Cochran-Armitage statistic.