Personal and work-related burnout is associated with increased episodes of suicidal ideation or behavior among working adults in Chile

Abstract

Burnout has been previously associated with suicidal risk factors and suicide itself, but these associations have only focused on work-related burnout among high-demand occupations. We aimed at examining the extent to which personal and/or work-related burnout are associated with suicidal ideation or behavior among working adults in Chile. We conducted a cross-sectional study among 1,970 working adults attending the Hospital del Trabajador in Santiago, Chile, between September 2015 and February 2018, using structured interviews. The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) assessed levels of personal and work-related burnout (mild, moderate, and high-to-severe), and the Columbia Suicidal Rating Scale (C-SSRS) measured suicidal ideation or behavior. Multivariable logistic regression models were fit to estimate the magnitude of the association between burnout with suicidal ideation or behavior. After adjusting for putative confounders, moderate and high-to-severe personal burnout were associated with 5.07-fold (95% confidence interval (Al-Halabí et al.): 3.56–7.26) and 10.26-fold (95% CI: 5.75–18.50) increased odds of suicidal ideation or behavior, and high-to-severe work-related burnout associated with 2.47-fold increased odds (95% CI: 1.31–4.68). The dose-response pattern was shown in the association between both types of burnout and suicidal ideation or behavior (p for trend <0.05). Personal and work-related burnout were associated with increased odds of suicidal ideation or behavior in a dose-response manner. Focusing on alleviating burnout levels through mental health services or social support may effectively decrease the prevalence of suicidal ideation or behavior among working adults.

Keywords:

• Suicidal ideation
• suicidal behavior
• personal burnout
• work-related burnout
• working adults

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the dedicated staff members of the Hospital del Trabajador for their expert technical assistance with this research.

Ethics statement

The institutional review boards of the Hospital del Trabajador, Santiago, Chile, and the Office of Human Research Administration, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, approved this study (IRB Approval Number: IRB15-0585). Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data accessibility statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Institute of Minority Health and Health Disparities [T37-MD-001449]. The NIH had no further role in the study design, the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, the writing of the report, and the decision to submit the paper for publication.