Article Text
Abstract
Introduction Wellbeing and health status of healthcare workerscan be strictly related to the quality of careprovided to the patients. Aim of our study was to compare burnout level, cardiovascular risk (CV) and renal function, in health care workers and administrative clerks of an Italian hospital, to properly address preventive and health promoting intervention.
Methods A sample of 262 health care workers (female = 184, male = 78) was randomly selected among the hospital personnel (about 19% of the total workforce), divided in four job categories: physicians, nurses, nurse aides, and administrative clerks. All subjects completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaire. CV risk was measured by “Framingham ATP III point score” and glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was estimated by “eGFR CKD EPI equation”.
Results Mean age of the overall study sample was 50,4 (sd 6,22). Burnout level was high for all job tasks investigated, particularly for emotional exhaustion (40.0% nurses aides, 30.2% administrative clerks) and cynicism (33.3% nurses aides, 26.6% administrative clerks). A medium-high 10-years CV risk was found in 19% of the cohort. The renal function showed early signs of impairment in 5.4% of subjects. The subgroup with moderate-high level of cynicism shows a lower eGFR (103,74; IF 95% 102,23–105,25; p = 0.016). Also moderate-high levels of emotional exhaustion resulted associated with lower eGFR (103,94; IF 95% 102,18–105,69; p = 0.09). No significant differences of eGFR were found between administrative clerks and other job categories.
Discussion This explorative analysis shows a high prevalence of burnout among all health care workers, with a relevant proportion showing a moderate-high risk of CV and chronic renal disease. Greater efforts are warranted to promote healthy lifestyles resulting in wellbeing of ageing workers’ and better quality of health care. This study was conducted with the financial support of the Italian Ministry of Health, CCM Program 2013.