Occupational Burnout Is Linked with Inefficient Executive Functioning, Elevated Average Heart Rate, and Decreased Physical Activity in Daily Life – Initial Evidence from Teaching Professionals

Summary & key facts

Researchers studied 28 teaching professionals who wore a device for three days to record heart rate and steps and who completed questionnaires for burnout, depression, and everyday executive function. People who met criteria for burnout had more problems with executive functions in daily life, higher average heart rates, lower heart-rate variability while awake, and fewer daily steps than those without burnout. Burnout scores were linked to higher depression scores and to worse executive-function scores, and they were linked to lower awake HRV and fewer steps. The study is small and observational, so it shows associations but does not prove cause and effect.

Key facts:

• Sample size was 28 teaching professionals (teachers and principals) who wore a device for a three-day recording of heart rate and daily steps.
• The study used questionnaires: BBI-15 to screen for burnout, BDI to screen for depression, and BRIEF-A to assess executive functions in daily life.
• Participants classified with burnout had more challenges in executive functions in daily life than participants without burnout (based on BRIEF-A results).
• Participants with burnout had higher average heart rates in daily life than those without burnout (measured by the wearable device).
• Higher burnout (BBI-15) scores correlated positively with higher depression (BDI) scores and with worse BRIEF-A indices (more executive-function problems).
• Higher burnout (BBI-15) scores correlated negatively with awake heart rate variability (HRV) and with the number of daily steps (more burnout = lower awake HRV and fewer steps).
• The BRIEF-A metacognition index specifically correlated negatively with awake HRV (higher metacognitive problems = lower awake HRV).
• Limitations noted by the authors include the small sample (n=28), the short recording period (three days), and the cross-sectional design, meaning the study shows associations but cannot establish cause and effect.

Abstract

Burnout is becoming a global pandemic jeopardizing brain health, with a huge impact on quality of life, available workforce, and the economy. Knowledge of the impact of burnout on cognition, physiology, and physical activity (PA) in daily life allows for an improved understanding of the health consequences and everyday ramifications of burnout. Twenty-eight volunteers participated in a three-day recording of daily physiology and PA, including heart rate (HR) and daily steps, with a wearable device. They filled in questionnaires screening for burnout (BBI-15), depression (BDI), and executive functions (EFs) in daily life (BRIEF-A). The subjects with burnout had more challenges in EFs, higher average HRs and lower numbers of steps in daily life than those without it. The BBI-15 scores correlated positively with the BDI scores and BRIEF-A indices and negatively with the awake HR variability (HRV) and daily steps. The metacognition index correlated negatively with the HRV. In conclusion, burnout is linked with compromised EFs along with alterations in cardiac physiology and PA in daily life. Such alterations may be easily detected with wearable devices, opening possibilities for novel biomarkers of burnout and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We suggest that physical activity and heart and brain health are intimately intertwined and that burnout interacts with each of them bidirectionally.

Topics

Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control Stress and Burnout Research

Categories

General Health Professions Health Professions Health Sciences

Tags

Activities of daily living Blood pressure Burnout Clinical psychology Cognition Everyday life Executive dysfunction Executive functions Gerontology Heart rate Heart rate variability Internal medicine Law Medicine Neuropsychology Nursing Political science Psychiatry Psychology Quality of life (healthcare)