Scientific evidence in occupational health: meta-analytical study of the burnout syndrome

Background: According to scientific literature, burnout can be described as a multi-dimensional syndrome with three fundamental dimensions: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Objectives: Since attention for this phenomenon is increasing, with a large number of articles published in scientific journals in recent years, we set out to evaluate the scientific evidence on this topic by applying the meta-analytical method. Methods: All comparative studies performed on burnout were identified and examined in order to compute the Effect Size of the results. Forty studies complied with the inclusion criteria of this analysis for a total of 2.031 burnout cases versus 1.950 controls. Results: Our results revealed a significant disparity in the methods of selecting subjects with burnout. This problem emphasizes the lack of a standardized definition of burnout as a univocal clinical entity and, consequently, the lack of a unanimously agreed procedure for the identification of patients to be included in this diagnostic category. Conclusions: The wide heterogeneity between studies thus considerably reduces the possibility of comparing them and generalizing the results.