Quality of life and burnout among faculty members: How much does the field of knowledge matter?

Faculty members face demands such as research, outreach programs, and management activities. Such demands may expose faculty to burnout. Burnout affects the physical, psychological and social health of faculty members, but it is still unclear how it affects their quality of life. We aimed to assess the impact of burnout on the quality of life (QoL) of faculty members from different fields of knowledge.

Cross-sectional study using validated tools for measuring burnout and QoL (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory-OLBI and World Health Organization Quality of Life-Abbreviated version-WHOQOL-Bref) in a sample of 366 faculty members from a public university. Scores were analyzed using Student's t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), binary logistic regression, and structural equation modeling (SEM).

More than a third of the faculty members (n = 127; 36.6%) suffered from burnout. Men had higher scores of quality of life than women in the physical health (p = 0.001; d<0.5), psychological (p = 0.001; d<0.5) and social relationships (p = 0.048; d<0.5) domains. Women were more exhausted than men (p = 0.001; d<0.5). Faculty members' perception of quality of life and burnout did not differ according to their field of knowledge (p>0.05). Participants who felt tired before arriving at work were less likely to report good quality of life (OR = 0.46; 95% CI = 0.21-0.99). Faculty members who stated they needed more time to relax after work were less likely to be satisfied with their health (OR = 0.20; 95% CI = 0.10-0.40). Burnout showed a negative association with quality of life (λ = 0.87; p < 0,001; df = 8).

Burnout negatively affects faculty members' quality of life, regardless of their field of knowledge. Our results suggest the implementation of programs and actions to prevent burnout to faculty members, especially to women, as their quality of life may affect the quality of the education provided.