Prevalence of Burnout Syndrome and Its Associated Factors among Saudi Board Residents in Saudi Arabia, 2019

Aims: This aimed to determine the prevalence of burnout syndrome and its associated factors among Saudi board residents in Saudi Arabia in 2019

Methods: The Cross-Sectional Study in all accredited training centers all over Saudi Arabia in 700 training centers accredited by SCFHS. The Study Population constitutes residents trained in the Saudi board residency programs all over the country. Inclusion criteria were A Resident in an accredited training center under the umbrella of SCFHS. A Saudi resident and A resident still in the training program. The exclusion criteria were Fellows or Diplomas, or are not under the SCFHS residency programs Non-Saudi residents and any resident having psychiatric disorders or chronic diseases. The required sample size was 369 residents. All residents were about [9000] in all training centers all over Saudi Arabia. The total number to invite was 1845 residents who asked to participate in this study. The data checked for completeness and accuracy. Handling and storing data on my personal computer, it was edited, coded, and entered on SPSS for IBM version 22.

Results: The majority of this study participants as shown from (Table 1), were male and from those participants married residents were more, 60.7%, 53.1 % respectively. 62.6% of them are from the Central and western regions in KSA. Between those residents, we found that the majority of their specialties were internal medicine, surgeries, family medicine then pediatrics respectively. 21.4% of them were obese while 35.8% are overweight and the rest were normal. about 53.9% of the respondents had a high score of emotional exhaustion, 50.1% had a high score of depersonalization and 21.4% had a low score of personal accomplishment. 32.8% (n=121) are smokers, and 47.4% (n=175) had sleep disorder, while 35.5% (n=131) of those residents are doing exercise. Just 2 residents have chronic diseases and 18 residents requested mental health assessment. Chi-square test showed internal medicine, as well as other specialties, are more affected than surgical, pediatrics, and family medicine. Through the regression model, it was shown that Depersonalization was the best predictor of the Burnout index, after adjusting for the rest of the covariates (beta=1.87; p<0.001). EE was the second-best predictor of the Burnout index, after adjusting for the rest of the covariates (beta=0.12; p<0.001).

Conclusion: There is a high rate of burnout among doctors of internal medicine. Significant correlation factors were working hours and the number of working days per week. Trainees reported the highest frequency of burnout. Multidimensional interventions, which can target a wide range of burnout triggers, incorporating various therapeutic tools, can help reduce burnout rates in healthcare providers.