SynthesisMedical education2025
Burnout before and during COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 48 698 trainees.
Synthesis in Medical education, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Burnout before and during COVID: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 48 698 trainees.Medical education · 2025Pooled it
- The tip of the iceberg: Rethinking burnout through social and organisational lenses.Medical education · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposePostgraduate medical trainees exhibit elevated burnout levels. COVID-related workplace stressors created a further mental health challenge, potentially exacerbating this issue. This review compared literature on burnout levels in postgraduate medical trainees published before and after COVID, with consideration of group differences (e.g., specialty and country).
methodsThis systematic review and meta-analysis was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42023404618) and followed the updated PRISMA statement. Embase, Ovid Medline, Ovid PsycInfo and the Cochrane Collaborative were searched until April 2025. These results were supplemented with pearling and citation searching of included articles and previous reviews. Studies that administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory - Human Services Survey (MBI) to postgraduate medical trainees were eligible. Where studies met eligibility criteria but did not provide required data (i.e., sample size, means and standard deviations), authors were contacted to supply these data. Methodological reporting quality (QualSyst tool) and publication bias were assessed (funnel plots, trim-and-fill method), and between-group heterogeneity explored (subgroup analyses, meta-regression). Differences in burnout levels pre- and intra-COVID (i.e., before and after March 2020, respectively) were quantified using Hedges' g.
resultsOf 3 930 unique studies identified, 245 were included, comprising 48 698 trainees. Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on burnout levels varied: although trainees' emotional exhaustion remained stable, reported levels of depersonalisation (from g
conclusionsWellbeing supports should be prioritized for front-line specialty trainees, who were vulnerable to work-related stressors that emerged during COVID. Interventions should focus on fostering a sense of competence and mastery, both of which can enhance personal accomplishment.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.