Association between high burn-out and workplace violence among healthcare workers in China: a WeChat-based survey

This study is conducted to examine whether overall workplace violence (WPV) and its five types are associated with high burn-out among healthcare workers in China.

A WeChat-based cross-sectional survey. Snowball sampling was used in this study.

Front-line healthcare workers (N=3706) from 149 cities across 23 provinces in China responded to the survey, and 22 questionnaires were excluded because of incomplete data.

(1) The Chinese Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey was used to measure high burn-out. (2) WPV was assessed using the Chinese version of the Workplace Violence Scale. (3) An anonymous self-designed web-based questionnaire consisting of demographic, behavioural and occupational information was used to identify covariates.

A total of 3684 front-line healthcare workers (934 physicians and 2750 nurses) were included. Of all participants, 13.3% (491/3193) experienced high burn-out. Adjusted logistic regression revealed that experience of WPV in the past year was associated with high burn-out (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.69 to 2.62). Healthcare workers who had suffered emotional abuse, threat or verbal sexual harassment were more vulnerable to high burn-out.

This study finds that healthcare workers with WPV, especially emotional abuse, threat and verbal sexual harassment, are more likely to experience burn-out. These types of WPV should be considered in interventions to reduce and prevent burn-out for healthcare workers.