Burn out among Greek physical therapists

Background: Burnout is a psychosocial syndrome, defined as a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, which occurs between individuals working in a vast working environment, especially in developed societies. Methods: For the conduct of the current study, there was appointed the evaluation of physiotherapists working in public and private hospitals, as well as rehabilitation centers in the area of Athens. With the use of random (multi)layered sampling, 176 physiotherapists filled an anonymous questionnaire, which included various subjects concerning burnout; the MBI scale, questions concerning, gender, age, marital status, educational level, professionals sector, as well as questions concerning the factors related to professional development. Results: The factor which influences more the professional development of the participants was the educational level with a 65,1% percentage followed by the personality of the participants with a 62,9% percentage. The prevalence of the burnout was the following; Of the total of the participants,52% showed low emotional exhaustion, 45,3% medium personal achievements and 49,1% low depersonalization. Age group correlated with PA mean score (p = 0.007). Gender, was a significant variable for E.E. (Mann-Whitney test; p=0,046). Educational level correlated with all MBI dimensions. Mean E.E. score and mean DP score (p<0.001) were higher in those who had master and / or Phd (p=0.039). However mean PA score (p=0,043) found to be lower. The number of years working as a physiotherapist correlated with the level of PA (p = 0,038). Multiple regression analysis revealed that the predictors of 1) E.E. was the gender (p=0,037) 2) PA was the age group (p=0,003).Conclusion: Burn out is a common problem in Greek physical therapists. Further research is needed in order to take the appropriate measures not only to identify this phenomenon, but also to prevent and confront it effectively.