Emotional exhaustion is associated with work related stressors: a cross-sectional multicenter study in Malaysian public hospitals

INTRODUCTION: Emotional exhaustion is an important component of burnout. Burnout is common among doctors. It affects the physical and mental health of doctors, their performance and the quality of care they provide. This study aimed to investigate the level and factors associated with emotional exhaustion among doctors in pediatric practice in Malaysia.

POPULATION AND METHODS: A self-administered questionnaire was used in this multicenter cross-sectional study. It included questions on the socio-demographics, work characteristics, Emotional Exhaustion, Perceived Stress Scale and sources of job stress. Descriptive, univariate and multivariate analysis were conducted using the SPSS software.

RESULTS: A total of 197 doctors working in the Pediatric department in eight hospitals returned complete questionnaire. High and moderate emotional exhaustion was reported by 25.4% and 24.4% doctors, respectively. In bivariate analysis, 29 out of the 38 items of sources of stress showed significant association with emotional exhaustion (p <0.05).The significant predictors of emotional exhaustion in the multivariate analysis were: scoring higher on the Perceived Stress Score, dealing with patient's psychosocial problems, disrespectful interactions with colleagues/ subordinates, lack of appreciation from supervisors, lack of incentives and promotions, time pressures and deadlines to meet, and setting unrealistic goals of having them imposed on oneself (p <0.05). The most common source of stress was dealing with difficult parents (80.2%).

CONCLUSIONS: Emotional exhaustion is associated with sources of stress in the workplace but not with socio-demographic factors.