Prevalence and factors associated with burnout among university professors.

Background: Burnout is one of the main examples of health disorders directly related to work. This is a psychological syndrome that results from exposure to stressors in the workplace and represents a considerable psychosocial problem.
Objective: To establish the prevalence of and factors associated with burnout among professors at public and private universities.
Methods: We administered two self-report questionnaires-one for sociodemographic, psychosocial, occupational and health-related data, and the other based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey-to professors at four public and private universities in Caicó, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. We subjected the data to univariate and bivariate analysis and also fitted a logistic regression model.
Results: About 60% of the participants were categorized as in the earliest stage of burnout syndrome. Having a chronic disease and teaching a large number of courses were the only variables significantly associated with burnout. The average score on domain depersonalization was significantly higher among the participants who had a second job, those who reported to need professional updating and the ones who taught a large number of courses. The average score on domain emotional exhaustion was higher among the participants with some chronic disease and those with high blood pressure.
Conclusion: The prevalence of burnout was high in the analyzed sample of university professors. Early detection of burnout symptoms might favor early treatment.