Examining burnout profiles in relation to health and well-being in the Veterans Health Administration employee population.

Abstract

The goals of this paper were twofold: (a) To provide a population overview of burnout profiles by occupation in a large, health care sector employee population and (b) to investigate how burnout profiles relate to self-reported health behaviours, chronic conditions, and absenteeism. Burnout profiles were considered by 5 main occupational groups (physicians, nurses, other clinical, administrative, and wage grade [trade, craft, and labor workers]) in survey respondents (n=86,257 employees). Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine how burnout profiles were associated with health controlling for gender, age, race, ethnicity, and occupational group. Employees in the "Frustrated/Burning Up" and "Withdrawing/Burned Out" profiles, respectively, had significantly increased odds of anxiety (OR=2.17; 99% CI [2.04, 2.31]; OR=2.21; 99% CI [2.05, 2.38]), depression (OR=2.06; 99% CI [1.93, 2.20]; OR=2.20; 99% CI [2.04, 2.38]), sleep disorders (OR=1.98; 99% CI [1.85, 2.12]; OR=1.97; 99% CI [1.81, 2.13]), low back disease (OR=1.60; 99% CI [1.50, 1.71]; OR=1.58; 99% CI [1.47, 1.70]), physical inactivity (OR=1.49; 99% CI [1.38, 1.60]; OR=1.68; 99% CI [1.54, 1.83]), and 5 or more days away from work (OR=1.74; 99% CI [1.65, 1.85]; OR=2.15; 99% CI [2.01, 2.30]). Burnout is related to the health of employees. Burnout profiles offer a way to assess patterns of burnout by occupational group and may help customize future interventions.