Burnout in emergency medicine physicians: A meta-analysis and systematic review

Physician burnout has been a global problem that affects severely the mental status among doctors, especially in emergency medicine (EM). However, few studies have focused on emergency medicine physicians, and the published data are inconsistent. Thus, this meta-analysis is performed to systematically evaluate the prevalence of burnout among emergency medicine physicians.

We systematically searched databases including PubMed, Embase, PsychINFO and the Cochrane Library from inception to September, 2019 for English-language articles. We selected all the original articles those used Maslach Burnout Inventory to assess the prevalence of burnout and its 3 dimensions emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization, and personal accomplishment (PA) in emergency medicine physicians. After literature screening, quality evaluation was performed for eligible studies by using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal checklist for studies reporting prevalence data; then, Begg test and Egger test was used to assess publication bias. Pooled prevalence rates were assessed by conducting a meta-analysis using random effects models. Then sensitivity analysis followed to test the stability of the result and detected the source of heterogeneity.

A total of 1943 EM physicians provided burnout data. The pooled prevalence rates of high levels of emotional exhaustion, high levels of depersonalization and low levels of PA were 40% (95% CI: 26%-55%; I = 97.4%), 41% (95% CI: 30%-52%; I = 94.5%) and 35% (95% CI: 19%-52%; I = 99.0%), respectively. The mean burnout scores were 23.95 (SD = 11.88) for emotional exhaustion, 11.63 (SD = 6.85) for depersonalization, and 34.69 (SD = 7.71) for PA.

This meta-analysis demonstrate a high level of burnout prevalent in EM physicians that approximately 40% experience high levels of EE and depersonalization. Our findings also suggest that EM physicians are more susceptible to burnout compared with physicians in other departments and other medical staffs in EM. More attention should be payed to mental status of EM physicians and further investigation concerning how to reduce burnout would be beneficial for EM physicians.Registration: INPLASY202060060 in inplasy.com (doi.org/10.37766/inplasy2020.6.0060).