The Single Item Burnout Measure is a Psychometrically Sound Screening Tool for Occupational Burnout

There is evidence of high rates of occupational burnout across many health practitioner groups. However, most measures used to assess burnout are lengthy, time consuming to administer, or difficult to interpret. Hence there is a need for the development and assessment of a short easily administered burnout measure for use in research and human resource contexts. To assess the psychometric performance of a single item burnout measure (SIB) and its association with salient outcome measures in a sample of general practitioners. This cross sectional study collected survey data from 92 general practitioners practising in the Northern Rivers region of NSW, Australia. SIB scores were compared with maslach burnout inventory-emotional exhaustion (MBI-EE) scores and examined for association with early retirement intentions, psychological distress and general health. Sensitivity analyses were calculated using the MBI-EE subscale as the reference standard. SIB scores were highly and positively correlated with MBI-EE scores (r = 0.8, P < 0.0001) and significantly associated with all outcome measures. A cut-off score of 5 on the SIB yielded a Kappa of 0.70 (95% CI: 0.49 to 0.90), sensitivity of 79% (95% CI: 0.63 to 0.95), specificity of 87% (95% CI: 0.79 to 0.95), positive predictive value of 68%, and negative predictive value of 92%. The results of this study indicates that the single item burnout measure has potential as a brief, sensitive screening measure of burnout due to its brevity, ease of administration and sound psychometric properties and needs to be validated further in larger studies and with other professional groups.