RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Characterization of Burnout Among Spanish Family Physicians Treating Fibromyalgia Patients: The EPIFFAC Study
JF The Journal of the American Board of Family
                Medicine
JO J Am Board Fam Med
FD American Board of Family Medicine
SP 386
OP 396
DO 10.3122/jabfm.2020.03.190201
VO 33
IS 3
A1 Torres, Xavier
A1 Ojeda, Begoña
A1 Collado, Antonio
A1 Solé, Emília
A1 Vergara, Jesús
A1 Gómez, Emili
A1 Castells, Xavier
A1 Arias, Anna
YR 2020
UL http://www.jabfm.org/content/33/3/386.abstract
AB Objective: Burnout among physicians has increased, affecting not only doctors but also the quality of patient care. Treating challenging disorders, such as fibromyalgia, may increase the risk of feeling burned out. Health care of fibromyalgia patients is increasingly being assigned to family physicians. Therefore, we described the demographic characteristics, work contexts, component burnout scores (exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal accomplishment), and perceptions of fibromyalgia care of Spanish family medicine physicians with high and low levels of burnout. We then evaluated which of these variables were associated with having high or low levels of burnout.Method: This cross-sectional study assessed 506 family physicians recruited from the Spanish Society of Family Physicians and randomly selected from Primary Health Care Centers. The subgrouping of family physicians based on their burnout scores was assessed by cluster analysis. Variables showing statistically significant differences between clusters and significance below 0.25 in univariate logistic regressions were assessed by multivariate logistic regression analysis.Results: Family physicians reporting higher burnout scores (25%) felt that fibromyalgia patients on sick leave increased their workload, reported no support from nurses in the treatment of fibromyalgia patients, and had a more negative impression of fibromyalgia patients.Conclusions: One-quarter of family physicians reported feeling exhausted, detached from fibromyalgia patients, or less professionally accomplished. Several personal characteristics and contextual variables increased burnout. Several interventions to modify these variables and, thus, protect family physicians treating fibromyalgia from burnout are suggested.