Background: Burnout syndrome (BS) is increasing among health
professionals, including family doctors (FD).
Aim: To characterize the prevalence of BS in a sample of FDs
working in the Portuguese National Health System.
Design: Cross-sectional survey.
Setting: Primary Health Care Centers (HCC) from the 18 continental
districts and 2 archipelagos of Portugal.
Method: The Portuguese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory -
Human Services Survey (MBI - HSS) was sent to 40 randomly selected
health-care centers (HCC) and distributed to the FDs employed. Sociodemographic
and work-related data was also collected. Participants
were classified as having high, average or low levels of emotional
exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP) and personal accomplishment
(PA) dimensions of burnout.
Results: 371 questionnaires were sent, of which 153 (83 women, age
range 29-64 years; response rate 41%) returned. One quarter (25.5%)
of participants had high EE, 10.1% high DP and 11.4% high PA, but only
2.0% of participants scored high for all three dimensions. Women had
significantly higher DP and PA scores than men; increased daily
workload also led to increased PA scores. Conversely, no association
was found between BS scores and age, marital status, number of years
of practice or type of HCC (Family or Personalized).
Conclusion: High burnout is relatively common among Portuguese
family doctors, yet slightly lower than reported for other European
countries. Burnout relief measures should be developed in order to
prevent a further increase of BS among Portuguese FDs.