ArticlePloS one2020
Burnout, anxiety and depression risk in medical doctors working in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa: Evidence from a multi-site study of resource-constrained government hospitals in a generalised HIV epidemic setting.
Article in PloS one, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mental Health during the COVID-19 Crisis in Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Pooled it
- Behind hypertension in white-coat heroes: a cross-sectional study exploring the link between burnout, occupational factors with hypertension in Kinshasa's healthcare workers, Democratic Republic of Congo.BMC public health · 2026Article
- Burnout and perceived stress in medical interns working at a hospital in Windhoek, Namibia.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2026Article
- The association between burnout and empathy in intern medical doctors rotating at Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2026Article
- Prevalence and factors associated with depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder among healthcare workers from sub-Saharan Africa: systematic review.BJPsych open · 2025Review
- Article
- Factors associated with depression and anxiety among mental healthcare practitioners.Journal of the colleges of medicine of South Africa · 2025Article
- Prevalence of burnout and associated factors among nurses working in public hospitals, southern Ethiopia: a multi-center embedded mixed study.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- A review of burnout among doctors in South Africa: Pre-, during and post-COVID-19 pandemic.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2024Review
- Impact of burnout on depression among nurses at a private hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2024Article
- Burnout among community service doctors in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2024Article
- A mindful approach to physician self-care.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2024Article
- Prevalence and determinants of burnout among South African doctors during the COVID-19 pandemic.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2024Article
- The psychological impact of COVID-19 on frontline doctors in Tshwane public hospitals.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2023Observational
- Social Network Characteristics and Depressive Symptoms of Italian Public Health Medical Residents: The Public Health Residents' Anonymous Survey in Italy (PHRASI).Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- "Why Am I Even Here If I Can't Save the Patients?": The Frontline Healthcare Workers' Experience of Burnout during COVID-19 Pandemic in Mthatha, South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Effects of personality traits on mindful self-care practices of healthcare workers.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2023Article
- Between suffering and coping: burnout in female medical doctors in South Africa.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Study of burnout and depressive symptoms in doctors at a central level, state hospital.The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa · 2023Article
- Burnout and resilience at work among health professionals serving in tertiary hospitals, in Ethiopia.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Globally, burnout in medical doctors (MDs) is concerning, with higher rates reported in studies conducted in South Africa (SA). This psychological syndrome leads to serious health consequences, and jeopardises patient care. Despite this, there is no data pertaining to these potential adverse mental health outcomes in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province, SA, where it is overshadowed by the fight against priorities such as HIV and AIDS/TB. This study therefore aimed to establish the nature and extent of burnout, anxiety and depressive symptoms and their associations among public sector MDs in KZN. A cross sectional study was conducted among MDs at five KZN public sector training hospitals to investigate their associations with practitioner (individual) and organisational factors using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey (MBI-HSS), the Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Of the 150 participants, 88 (59.0%) screened positive for burnout, as indicated by high scores on the emotional exhaustion or depersonalisation subscales in the MBI-HSS. One fifth screened positive for anxiety (n = 30) and depressive symptoms (n = 32). Burnout was significantly associated with individual factors of anxiety (p<0.01) and depressive (p<0.01) symptoms based on adjusted logistic regression models. Organisational factors, such as lack of clinical supervisor support (p<0.01) and hospital resources (p<0.01), were significantly associated with burnout based on the bivariate analyses. Burnout, anxiety and depressive symptoms in MDs are highly prevalent and intertwined in resource constrained KZN public training hospitals. Addressing burnout at individual and organisational levels is important to mitigate its adverse effects.
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