Risk Factors of Burnout among Egyptian Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study

Background: Burnout is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. It was initially investigated among employees and restricted to those who work in human services and educational institutions. However, this study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and associated risk factors of burnout among Egyptian medical students in Damietta Faculty of Medicine, Al-Azhar University. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2017 and March 2018, involved first to sixth-year medical students. The questioner consisted of four sections: 1) Sociodemographics and personal characteristics of participants such as age, gender, and academic year; 2) Burnout measurement: Burnout was measured by MBI-SS, a modified form of MBI-GS; 3) Related risk factors; 4) association between burnout and performance. Results: Out of 322 students, 222 students completed the questionnaire with a 67% response rate. The mean age was 21.1 ± 1.9, and 197 (88.7%) students were males. Our analysis demonstrated that the prevalence of burnout was 51.8%. In terms of subscales, 198 participants have high emotional exhaustion, 201 showed a high degree of depersonalization, and 110 participants have personal accomplishment. There was a significant difference between both groups in terms of gender (p=0.01) and marital status (p=0.005). Regression analysis demonstrated that high-risk factors related to studying burden, social burden, and future burden are associated with a higher risk of burnout with odd ratio (OR= 1.10, 95% CI (1.05-1.155), p<0.05), (OR= 1.05, 95% CI (1.01-1.09), p<0.05), and (OR= 1.15, 95% CI (1.05-1.26), p<0.05), respectively. Conclusion: This study found that the burnout prevalence was 52± with quite a high percentage of emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalization (DP), and a low level of personal accomplishment. Moreover, a significant association between gender, grade of medical school, marital status, and risk factors related to the study burden, future burden, and social burden.