Factors affecting medical students’ academic burnout: a moderation analysis

Background. Burnout syndrome may threaten medical students’ professional life through negative effects on their academic work and personal life. Therefore, it is very important to identify the risk and protective factors of burnout syndrome in this group of subjects. The present study aimed to determine the association of socio-demographic characteristics, current substance/medication abuse, and personality dimensions with academic burnout among medical students, and examine physical activity as a potential moderator of the personality dimensions-academic burnout relationship. Materials and Methods. In this cross-sectional study, a total of 400 medical students from the four courses of basic sciences, physiopathology, stagers, and internship (100 people at each course) in Zahedan, Iran, in 2018, were selected by stratified sampling method and evaluated using the socio-demographic information form, Baecke physical activity questionnaire, Temperament and character inventory, and Breso’s academic burnout questionnaire. Finally, descriptive statistical methods, the Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, and hierarchical linear regression were implemented for data analysis. Results. The participants included 156 men and 244 women. The overall frequencies for current substance/medication abuse, exhaustion, cynicism, inefficacy, and academic burnout were reported to be 27.5, 10.3, 12.3, 6.5, and 25.8 percent, respectively. The study results showed that physical activity, persistence, and cooperativeness were negative, and the years in medical school, current substance/medication abuse, and novelty seeking were positively associated with academic burnout. Also, the regression analysis results revealed the moderating effect of physical activity in the novelty-seeking-academic burnout link. Conclusions. These findings are an important contribution to the current literature on academic burnout as they can provide a meaningful guide to integrating treatment protocols designed to reduce both frequency and severity of this syndrome among medical students. However, the etiology of academic burnout among this highly sensitive group should be further investigated in depth.