Overview and Aims:

Numerous studies have shown that burnout has high incidence among medical doctors, being especially high among gynecologists and obstetricians. Since there is no known study on the incidence in this medical residency in Portugal, our primary goal was to evaluate the incidence of burnout in gynecologists and obstetricians, to understand which factors are most associated with the syndrome and to contribute to the prevention of burnout.

Study Design:

Cross-sectional survey.

Population:

Gynecologists and obstetricians practicing in Portugal.

Methods:

A survey was elaborated and validate by the authors about sociodemographic and professional and personal life questions with burnout assessment through Copenhagen Burnout Syndrome Questionnaire adapted to Portuguese. The questionnaire was addressed via e-mail to all members of the Portuguese Society of Gynecology and the Portuguese Society of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine. Anonymity was ensured through the Google Forms platform. The results were analyzed using the SPSS statistical software.

Results:

It was obtained 217 responses; 56.7% of the gynecologists and obstetricians who participated in the study suffer from burnout, with an average of 54.9 points in the validated scale. Women doctors, younger specialists, few leisure activities; thinking about changing specialty; profession or institution/service; classification of workplace conditions; excessive workload, lack of career progression, lack of autonomy in managing working hours, inequality in working conditions and salary as causes of stress and anxiety; no activities for reducing stress and anxiety; and regular intake of anxiolytic and/or antidepressant drugs were more associated with Burnout.

Conclusions:

This analysis found a high incidence of burnout in the specialists of gynecology and obstetrics in Portugal, as reported in other international studies. In addition, it was possible to identify aggravating and protective factors amenable to intervention.

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