[Prevalence of burnout in primary care professionals of National Health System: systematic review and meta-analysis]

To analyze the prevalence of burnout syndrome in primary care professionals working in the National Health System.

We searched PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and PsycINFO (up to May 2025). Observational studies conducted in Spain reporting the prevalence of burnout in professionals working in primary care (e.g., physicians, nurses, administrative staff and others) were included. From each study, methodological characteristics and results were extracted and their quality was evaluated. We performed a narrative synthesis with random effects meta-analysis to calculate proportions.

Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/b9jmp/).

Thirty-nine studies with 9465 participants were included. For the primary outcome measure, a burnout prevalence of 18% (95%CI: 13-24%; 25 studies; 6310 participants; I²=96.7%) was found. By professional category, the prevalence rates were: 24% (95%CI: 16-32%) in physicians, 17% (95%CI: 6-32%) in nurses, 11% (95%CI: 2-27%) in administrative staff, and 5% (95%CI: 0-16%) in other professionals. Differences were found according to the diagnostic criterion used: a prevalence of 52% (95%CI: 40-63%) in physicians and 44% (95%CI: 26-63%) in nurses using one dimension; 27% (95% CI: 20-34%) in physicians and 18% (95%CI: 5-36%) in nurses for two dimensions; and 21% (95%CI: 13-31%) in physicians and 12% (95%CI: 1-33%) in nurses for three dimensions of burnout.

High prevalence of burnout syndrome was observed among primary care professionals working in the National Health System, with variations depending on professional category and diagnostic criteria. It seems necessary to promote actions at the individual and organizational levels to reduce the burden associated with burnout among professionals.