Prevalence of burnout and associations with psychosocial work environment, physical strain, and stress of conscience among Swedish female and male police personnel

Abstract

Focus of this study was to investigate prevalence of burnout and relation to psychosocial work environment, physical strain, and stress of conscience amongst female and male police personnel in Sweden. The questionnaire was answered by 856 (55%) patrolling police officers, 437 (56%) women vs. 419 (53%) men. Prevalence and mean values for emotional exhaustion (EE) and depersonalization (DP) was higher in our study compared to other studies including police personnel in Norway and the Netherlands. A multiple logistic regressions showed that for women stress of conscience, high demand, and organizational climate was significant associated with EE, for men it was stress of conscience, decision, and high demand. For DP only stress of conscience contributed statistically significant in our model, respectively, of gender. Further research is needed to develop interventions aiming to reduce levels of burnout among police personnel in Sweden.