[The burnout syndrome in medical residents working long periods]

to evaluate the burnout syndrome in medical residents with working periods longer than 80 hours per week.

an analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with medical residents working at Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social hospital in Veracruz, México. The residents were classified in two groups. One group working for > or = 80 h per week (study group, SG) and another group working < 80 h per week (comparison group, CG) were studied. Participants were selected by simple random sampling. The clinical evaluation instrument was the scale of Maslach burnout inventory.

143 medical residents were included in the sample (SG n = 72, CG n = 71); the average age was 29.6 +/- 2.5 years, 65 % were males and 51 % were unmarried. Their length of service was 2.2 +/- 0.7 years. The mean working time was 100.5 +/- 7.2 hours per week for the SG and 64.4 +/- 9.3 hours for the CG. Burnout syndrome was present in 46 (63.8 %) medical residents with long workdays (p = 0.002); it was observed more frequently in those residents that were on call 3 times per week (p = 0.002) and among surgery residents (p = 0.035).

working periods longer than 80 h per week are related to the appearance of burnout syndrome.