Abstract
BackgroundThere is a worldwide rising tendency of women deciding to become physicians; hence, one of the most remarkable fields of investigation is the wellbeing of female doctors. The aim of this study was to describe female physicians’ reproductive health in Hungary and to explore the potential correlation between their reproductive disorders and burnout symptoms. Up to our present knowledge, there have not been any studies investigating the correlation between reproductive disorders and burnout of female physicians; therefore, our study represents a unique approach.MethodsData in this representative cross-sectional epidemiological study were obtained from online questionnaires completed by 3039 female physicians. Participants in a representative nationwide survey (Hungarostudy, 2013) served as controls (n = 1069). Differences between physicians and the control group were disclosed by chi-square test. Correlations between certain factors of reproductive health and the three dimensions of burnout were detected by Pearson correlations and X2 test. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between burnout and reproductive health.ResultsFemale physicians were more often characterised by time-to-pregnancy interval longer than one year (18.4% vs. 9.8%), were bearing more high-risk pregnancies (26.3% vs.16.3%), and were more likely to be undergoing infertility therapy (8.5% vs. 3.4%) and experiencing miscarriage (20.8% vs. 14.6%) during their reproductive years, compared with the general female population. With the exception of miscarriages, the difference remained significant in all comparisons with the professional control group. Both high-risk pregnancies and miscarriages of doctors were associated with depersonalisation (p = 0.028 and p = 0.012 respectively) and personal accomplishment (p = 0.016 and p = 0.008 respectively) dimensions of burnout. Results of the multivariate analysis showed that, beside traditional risk factors, depersonalisation acted as an important explanatory factor in case of high-risk pregnancies (OR = 1.086).ConclusionsThere is a circulatory causality between burnout and the development of reproductive disorders. Burnout is an important risk factor for high-risk pregnancies and miscarriages, and it has a negative effect on the outcome of pregnancies. At the same time, women suffering from reproductive disorders are more likely to develop burnout syndrome. Improvement of working conditions and prevention of burnout in female doctors are equally important tasks.
Highlights
There is a worldwide rising tendency of women deciding to become physicians; one of the most remarkable fields of investigation is the wellbeing of female doctors
We looked for the correlation between the different components of burnout syndrome (Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalisation, Personal Accomplishment) and high-risk pregnancies and miscarriages
We found that compared with the general female population, a larger proportion of female medical doctors were characterised by time-to-pregnancy intervals longer than one year, and more of them had undergone infertility treatment or miscarriage(s)
Summary
There is a worldwide rising tendency of women deciding to become physicians; one of the most remarkable fields of investigation is the wellbeing of female doctors. Up to our present knowledge, there have not been any studies investigating the correlation between reproductive disorders and burnout of female physicians; our study represents a unique approach. Pinhas-Hamiel et al found a higher rate of preterm births, but the same rate of miscarriages among Israeli house officers, compared with the general female population [6]. A higher rate of health disorders during pregnancy was confirmed by two quantitative investigations [8,9], and a higher rate of preterm births was found in a survey of Canadian female surgeons [8,9,10]. A Finnish study (performed between 1996 and 2006) did not find a difference in health problems during pregnancy between the general population and female doctors [12]
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