Occupational burnout among dentists in Isfahan

Dentists are prone to occupational burnout due to the nature of their stressful profession. The aim of this study was to determine the level of occupational burnout among dentists in Isfahan in 2013.
In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 300 dentists working in Isfahan were recruited by simple random sampling. The Persian version of Maslach Burnout Questionnaire was used for data collection; the validity and reliability of the questionnaire have been confirmed. The questions of the questionnaire are in three sections of emotional exhaustion (9 items), depersonalization (5 items), and a sense of personal accomplishment failure (8 questions). Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-squared test, t-test and ANOVA, using SPSS 18 (α=0.05).
The mean scores of frequency and severity of burnout among dentists were 36.6±20.3 (range: 0‒132) and 75.5±16.2 (range: 0‒154), respectively. In subdomains the mean scores of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and personal feeling of accomplishment failure among dentists were 20.1±12.2 (range: 0‒63), 3.7±4.2 (range: 0‒35) and 14.7±9.1 (range: 0‒54), respectively. The frequencies and intensity of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were higher in males (p value Based on the results, occupational burnout among dentists in Isfahan was low in frequency and intensity. Females, the married and subjects with more experience exhibited less occupational burnout. Further studies are suggested for detecting effective factors and the extent of their effects.