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
Review
. 2023 Oct 23:11:100530.
doi: 10.1016/j.ejro.2023.100530. eCollection 2023 Dec.

Incidence and factors associated with burnout in radiologists: A systematic review

Nader Ashraf  1 , Muhammad Junaid Tahir  2 , Abdullah Saeed  2 , Mohammad J Ghosheh  1 , Tamara Alsheikh  1 , Ali Ahmed  3 , Ka Yiu Lee  4 , Zohaib Yousaf  5
Affiliations
Review

Incidence and factors associated with burnout in radiologists: A systematic review

Nader Ashraf et al. Eur J Radiol Open. .

Abstract

Rationale and objectives: Burnout among physicians has a prevalence rate exceeding 50%. The radiology department is not immune to the burnout epidemic. Understanding and addressing burnout among radiologists has been a subject of recent interest. Thus, our study aims to systematically review studies reporting the prevalence of burnout in physicians in the radiology department while providing an overview of the factors associated with burnout among radiologists.

Materials and methods: The search was conducted from inception until November 13th, 2022, in PubMed, Embase, Education Resources Information Center, PsycINFO, and psycArticles. Studies reporting the prevalence of burnout or any subdimensions among radiology physicians, including residents, fellows, consultants, and attendings, were included. Data on study characteristics and estimates of burnout syndrome or any of its subdimensions were collected and summarized.

Results: After screening 6379 studies, 23 studies from seven countries were eligible. The number of participants ranged from 26 to 460 (median, 162; interquartile range, 91-264). In all, 18 studies (78.3%) employed a form of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. In comparison, four studies (17.4%) used the Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index, and one study (4.3%) used a single-item measure derived from the Zero Burnout Program survey. Overall burnout prevalence estimates were reported by 14 studies (60.9%) and varied from 33% to 88%. High burnout prevalence estimates were reported by only five studies (21.7%) and ranged from 5% to 62%. Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization prevalence estimates were reported by 16 studies (69.6%) and ranged from 11%-100% and 4%-97%, respectively. Furthermore, 15 studies (65.2%) reported low personal accomplishment prevalence, ranging from 14.7% to 84%. There were at least seven definitions for overall burnout and high burnout among the included studies, and there was high heterogeneity among the cutoff scores used for the burnout subdimensions.

Conclusion: Burnout in radiology is increasing globally, with prevalence estimates reaching 88% and 62% for overall and high burnout, respectively. A myriad of factors has been identified as contributing to the increased prevalence. Our data demonstrated significant variability in burnout prevalence estimates among radiologists and major disparities in burnout criteria, instrument tools, and study quality.

Keywords: Burnout; Prevalence; Radiology; Stress; Workload.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flow diagram.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization ICD-11 for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics. Accessed December 26, (2022). 〈http://id.who.int/icd/entity/129180281〉.
    1. Shanafelt T.D., Hasan O., Dyrbye L.N., et al. Changes in burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance in physicians and the General US working population between 2011 and 2014. Mayo Clin. Proc. 2015;90(12):1600–1613. doi: 10.1016/j.mayocp.2015.08.023. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rotenstein L.S., Torre M., Ramos M.A., et al. Prevalence of burnout among physicians. JAMA. 2018;320(11):1131. doi: 10.1001/jama.2018.12777. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Giess C.S., Ip I.K., Gupte A., et al. Self-reported burnout: comparison of radiologists to nonradiologist peers at a large academic medical center. Acad. Radio. 2022;29(2):277–283. doi: 10.1016/j.acra.2020.10.013. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Maslach C., Jackson S.E. The measurement of experienced burnout. J. Organ Behav. 1981;2(2):99–113. doi: 10.1002/job.4030020205. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources