Burnout among medical students of a medical college in Kathmandu; A cross-sectional study

Background Medical students are more prone to burnout than the general population and students of other faculties due to the demanding nature of medical education with limited time and resources. Burnout has a negative impact on the academics and personal life of the students which can continue into their professional life and ultimately hamper patient care. The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence of burnout among medical students of a medical college and find its association with age, gender, and year of study. Materials and methods This cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students of a medical college in Kathmandu, Nepal from 14 January to 7 March, 2021. Stratified sampling followed by a simple random sampling technique was employed to select study participants. Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire using the English version of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory adapted for students (OLBI-S) and analyzed in STATA version 15. Results The prevalence of burnout was found out to be 65.9% (n = 229). And of the remaining, 12.7% were exhausted, 11.4% were disengaged and 10.0% were neither exhausted nor disengaged. Burnout had no significant association with age in years, gender, and year of study. Conclusions This study shows an alarming prevalence of burnout in almost two-thirds of medical students. These results indicate the necessity of employing effective strategies by relevant authorities for the mental well-being of future physicians. Further multicenter prospective studies are required for a better understanding of the prevalence and associated factors of burnout.

Enter a financial disclosure statement that    Medical students are more prone to burnout than the general population and students of other is to determine prevalence of burden among medical students of a medical college and find its 24 association with age, gender, and year of study.

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This cross sectional study was conducted among medical students of a medical college in 27 Kathmandu, Nepal from 14 January to 7 March 2021. Stratified sampling followed by a simple 28 random sampling technique was employed to select study participants. Data was collected through 29 a self-administered questionnaire using Oldenburg Burnout Inventory adapted for students (OLBI-30 S) and analyzed in STATA version 15.

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The prevalence of burnout was found out to be 65.9%. And of the remaining 12.7% were 33 exhausted, 11.4% were disengaged and 10.0% were neither exhausted nor disengaged. The 34 burnout had no significant association with age in years, gender and year of study.

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This study shows an alarming prevalence of burnout in almost two-thirds of medical students.

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These results indicate the necessity of employing effective strategies by relevant authorities for the  Furthermore, burnout of medical students can also lead to burnout after they become a doctor [17] 62 which may result in unprofessionalism, poor quality of patient care, medical errors, suicidal 63 5 ideation, and attrition, and be a factor in substance abuse and relationship difficulties [15,18]. 64 Many studies have found that the prevalence of burnout among medical students, residents, and 65 physicians is as much as 50% in the US [19,20]. Around the globe prevalence rates for medical 66 students burnout ranges from 7.0% to 75.2%, depending on country-specific factors, applied 67 instruments, cutoff-criteria for burnout symptomatology [21]. However, burnout has not been 68 adequately explored among the medical students of Nepal. Therefore, this cross-sectional study 69 aims to find out the prevalence of burnout among medical students of a medical college in Nepal.   Therefore, the calculated sample size was 228, and considering the 5% of non-response rate the 91 sample size taken was 239.

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After calculation of sample size, a stratified sampling technique was employed using students' 93 class year as a stratum. Students' attendance sheet of each class year was used as a sampling frame.

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First, the total sample size (i.e., 239) was proportionally allocated for each stratum, then a simple 95 random sampling method using random number generator software was applied to obtain the study 96 participants from each class year. This was done to address the potential selection bias and 97 response bias (detail of procedure available as Supplementary file 1). 99 Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is the most commonly used scale for measuring burnout. Its   to be reversed i.e. from 1 to 4, 2 to 3, 3 to 2 & 4 to 1 so that higher scores correspond to higher 117 burnout.

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The mean of each subscale is taken and the cutoff scores ≥ 2.25 is used for exhaustion and scores

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The calculated sample size required for the study was 228. Assuming a non-response rate of 5%,  The prevalence of burnout among medical students in our study was much higher than expected,