• Gisela Marcelino, João Melich Cerveira, Inês Carvalho, João Azeredo Costa, Marta Lopes, Nelson Encarnação Calado, and Pedro Marques-Vidal.
• Medical Faculty of Lisbon, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal.
• BMJ Open. 2012 Jan 1; 2 (3).

AimTo characterise the prevalence of burnout syndrome in a sample of family doctors (FDs) working in the Portuguese National Health System.DesignCross-sectional survey.SettingPrimary healthcare centres from the 18 continental districts and two archipelagos of Portugal.MethodThe Portuguese version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey was sent to 40 randomly selected healthcare centres and distributed to the FDs employed. Socio-demographic and work-related data were also collected. Participants were classified as having high, average or low levels of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalisation (DP) and personal accomplishment (PA) dimensions of burnout.Results371 questionnaires were sent, of which 153 (83 women, age range 29-64 years; response rate 41%) returned. One-quarter (25.3%, 95% CI 18.6% to 33.1%) of FDs scored high for EE, 16.2% (10.7% to 23.2%) for DP and 16.7% (11.1% to 23.6%) for lack of PA. On multivariate analysis, being married, of older age, having many years of practice or working in a personalised healthcare unit tended to be associated with increased burnout components. Men tended to present higher EE and DP but lower lack of PA than women. Finally, the prevalence (95% CI) of burnout ranged between 4.1% (1.5% to 8.6%) and 32.4% (25.0% to 40.6%), depending on the definition used.ConclusionsHigh burnout is relatively common among Portuguese FDs. Burnout relief measures should be developed in order to prevent a further increase of burnout syndrome among Portuguese FDs.

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