O5

O5

EFFICACY OF INTERVENTIONS TO MITIGATE THE RISK OF BURNOUT AMONGST HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF 84 RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIALS

1. Collett¹, J. Gupta², A. Eltayeb¹, A. Korszun³, L. Sharples⁴, K. Rice⁵, A. Gupta¹

¹William Harvey Research Institute, Queen Mary University of London, UK

²South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, London, UK

³Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London, UK

⁴London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK

⁵Department of Biostatistics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Background:

Based on available literature, there are no comprehensive reviews of the strategies to mitigate burnout amongst all healthcare professionals (HCPs), regardless of their profession.

Methods:

PubMed and Scopus were searched on 20th January 2024 for all RCTs and cluster-RCTs evaluating the efficacy of various interventions to mitigate burnout (vs. no active intervention) amongst HCPs and reported effects on burnout measured as a continuous outcome. Separate fixed-effects models were developed for each burnout component: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP), personal accomplishment (PA), and burnout measured as a single concept. For studies using the full MBI (most commonly used scale) or Professional Quality of Life burnout subscale, we estimated their unstandardized mean difference to evaluate for effect size.

Results:

79 RCTs and 5 Cluster RCTs were included (7,374 participants). Overall, those on an active intervention (vs. no intervention/routine care) were associated with significantly reduced EE, DP, single-concept burnout, and significantly increased PA scores. For DP and PA, nurses and midwives reported a significantly greater benefit compared to doctors. Compared to no active interventions, allocation to mindfulness/meditation-based were consistently associated with a significantly reduced mean MBI-EE score, MBI-DP scores, and increased MBI-PA scores. Increased intervention duration (4-weeks or more vs. less) was associated with greater higher magnitude of benefits for MBI-EE and MBI-DP scores.

Implications:

The risk of burnout in HCPs can be effectively mitigated using evidence-based interventions targeted towards high-risk roles and for longer duration of time. These findings will inform healthcare policymakers to adopt effective strategies in a targeted way.