Burnout, job satisfaction, and anxiety-depression among family physicians: A cross-sectional study

Physicians are the most burn-outed group among the occupations. Among the physicians, family physicians have the highest burnout rates. Our objective in this study is to determine factors that are effective on work satisfaction of family physicians and their correlations with their burnout, anxiety-depression levels.

This cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out in primary health care professionals in region of Southeastern Anatolia from Diyarbakır Turkey. A survey form consists of 74 questions, and which questions burnout, job satisfaction, and anxiety-depression level has been applied on family medicine doctors, supplementary items in a questionnaire. Total of 343 family medicine doctors were reached, and the questionnaires were administered by face-to-face interview. Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows 18.0 software was used for statistical analysis.

Work satisfaction of family physicians who are on call lower compared to doctors who are not on call among family physicians who have joined to study (P < 0.005). It is determined that there is negative correlation between work satisfaction level of family physicians and emotional burnout, desensitisation, anxiety and depression point (P = 0.001 r = -0.23, P = 0.015, r = -0.16, P = 0.06, r = -0.124, P = 0.0001, r = -0.23), there is positive correlation between emotional burnout levels and anxiety, depression average points (P = 0.001, r = 0.34, P = 0.0001, r = 0.41), there is positive correlation between anxiety and depression points (P = 0.0001, r = 0.57).

The work satisfaction level of family physicians, who are on call and whose financial income expectation is not satisfied, was found low. It is seen that there is strong correlation between inadequacy of work satisfaction with burnout and anxiety, depression. As this can have negative effects on work performance, there is a need to look for solutions to increase work performance of family physicians.