ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN BURNOUT AND SUBJECTIVE MUSCULOSKELETAL COMPLAINTS IN SURGICAL HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

Aim. The objective of the actual study was to determine the predictive value of burnout for the occurrence of subjective musculoskeletal complaints in surgical health professionals (HPs). Methods. A cross-sectional study analyzing different profiles of surgical HPs (30 surgeons, 30 surgical nurses, 30 physicians (non-surgeons), 30 non-surgical nurses, and 30 administrative and technical workers). Burnout was assessed by the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Hospital Experience Scale was applied for the assess-ment of job demands. Determination of predictive value of different factors for the occurrence of subjective musculoskeletal complaints included testing of various models of logistic regression. Results. Participants with high/medium emotional ex-haustion morefrequently complained about back pain (46.2% vs. 22%; χ2=8.97; p=0.003) and lower limb pain (30.8% vs. 15.3%; χ2=4.64; p=0.031) compared to parti-cipants with low emotional exhaustion. Participants with burnout compared to those who didnot have this syn-drome, more frequently complained about back pain (54.5% vs. 29.2%; χ2=8.57; p=0.003) and upper limb pain (20.5% vs. 3.8%; χ2=10.93; p=0.001). The occurrence of back pain was predicted by physical demands (exp b=2.27, 95%CI 1.06-4.87, p<0.05) and emotional exhaustion (exp b=1.06, 95%CI 1.02-1.09, p<0.01) and the occurrence of upper limb pain by physical demands (exp b=4.31, 95%CI 1.3-14.26, p<0.05) and depersonalization (exp b=1.18, 95%CI 1.08-1.29, p<0.001). Conclusion. Both job demands and burnout predict the occurrence of subjective musculoskeletal complaints. Adequate management of job demands can lead to pre-vention of burnout and musculoskeletal complaints in surgical HPs.