Burnout Syndrome among Lithuanian Dentists: Prevalence, Analysis of Possible Causes

SUMMARY Relevance of the problem and aim of the study. Burnout syndrome is a psychoemotional state disorder, which usually manifests in healthcare professionals or other specialists whose main goal is to help others. The main function of a dentist is work with a patient. Burnout syndrome not only worsens the dentist‘s psychological state and quality of life, but also has an impact on the function he delivers and on patients‘ health. The main goal of the work is to evaluate the prevalence of burnout among dentists of Lithuania and the influence of sociodemographic, job specific and enviromental factors on the occurrence of burnout syndrome. Materials and methods. Practicing dentists filled the anonimic questionaires online or during the public events for dentists. To evaluate the level of burnout the MBI (Maslach Burnout Inventory) questionaire was chosen. MBI is the most commonly used instrument to evaluate burnout level around the world. Not only burnout level, sociodemographic and working environment related factors were evaluated, but the respondents were also asked to answer the questions about their free time. The results were analysed using the systems of statistical analysis and levels of burnout were defined by the new approach proposed by the authors of MBI, where all the respondents were divided into 5 profiles. The predisposing factors of burnout syndrome and most common freetime activities were defined, the prognostic model to prognose burnout in dentists was created. Results. The overall sample of 396 dentists was devided into 5 profiles as proposed by the authors –221 (55,8%) – „burnout“ 166 (41,9%) – „overextended“ 8 (2,0%) – „engaged“ 1 (0,3%) – „disengaged“, none of the respondents were profiled as „non effective“. Respondents who worked less than 8,5 years, had less than two children, worked more than 4 days a week or 42 hours a week, those who thought that they earned less than they should and had no postgraduate specialisation significantly more often were profiled as „burnout“, they also felt the respect and appreciation from colleagues and management significantly less often, described the atmosphere at work as negative and did not tend to recommend dentistry to a young undecided person. The „negative“ freetime activities were proven to occur in dentists who were profiled as „burnout“ more often. Conclusion. Years of experience, number of working hours and days per week, number of children, having no postgraduate specialisation and low salary were the main sociodemographic and working environment realted factors contributing to burnout in the sample. The main elements of interpersonal relationships and atmosphere at work, which contributed to burnout were lack of respect and appreciation from colleagues and management and negative evaluation of atmosphere at work. Dentists who were prone to burnout did not tend to recommend dentistry as a career and were more likely to involve themselves in negative activities such as drinking alcohol or using drugs in their freetime.