Association of occupational burnout and type of personality in Iranian general practitioners

BACKGROUND: Physicians experience high level of occupational burnout that exposes them to physical and mental exhaustion as well as job dissatisfaction. OBJECTIVE: The association between different types of personality traits and occupational burnout among a group of Iranian general practitioners is assessed. METHODS: One hundred general practitioners working in emergency wards of eight hospitals in Iran were studied. Occupational burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory and type of personality was assessed using the Holland personality test. RESULTS: An average of 15.4% of personnel displayed high frequency in subscale of emotional exhaustion, 14.5% displayed high frequency in subscale of depersonalization, and 10.2% displayed high frequency in subscale of lack of personal accomplishment. Realistic personality was revealed in 2%, social types in 41%, investigative type in 35%, enterprising types in 6.0%, artistic type in 13% and conventional type of personality in 3.0% of them. The subjects with social personality experienced the lowest burnout. There were negative correlation between physician experiences and different subdivisions of burnout. CONCLUSION: A notable number of Iranian general practitioners suffered occupational burnout, especially emotional exhaustion. The majority of physicians had social or investigative personalities.