Appetite for coping: a latent profile analysis of typological heterogeneity in nurse burnout and emotional eating

To identify the latent heterogeneous subtypes of burnout and emotional eating among Chinese clinical nurses, and to examine the predictive effects of monthly night shift frequency and years of work experience on subtype membership.

A convenience and snowball sampling method was used to survey 360 practicing nurses in China from August 2025 to January 2026. Burnout and emotional eating/emotional undereating were measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS) and the Adult Eating Behavior Questionnaire (AEBQ), respectively. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was conducted to identify subtypes, and multinomial logistic regression was used to examine predictors.

LPA identified three distinct profiles: "Low Burnout-Adaptive Eating" (36.1%), "Moderate Burnout-Emotional Reactive" (47.8%), and "Severe Burnout-Maladaptive Coping" (16.1%). Multinomial logistic regression showed that each one-level increase in monthly night shift frequency was associated with a 72.6% higher risk of belonging to the severe burnout profile (OR = 1.726, p = 0.014). Each one-level increase in work experience significantly reduced the odds of being classified into the severe burnout profile by 28.2% (OR = 0.718, p = 0.026). Body Mass Index (BMI) was not a significant predictor.

There is a substantial co-occurrence of burnout and emotional eating among Chinese nurses. Frequent night shifts serve as a key driver of resource depletion, while professional experience provides a stepwise protective effect. Nursing administrators should implement refined scheduling to cap monthly night shifts and deploy precision-targeted interventions (e.g., mindful eating support) toward novice nurses with high night shift loads to interrupt early-career loss spirals.