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Workforce & wellbeing
Physician burnout dimension linked to self-rated health
Self-Rated Health and Burnout Dimensions Among Prehospital Emergency Medical Services Physicians: A Cross-Sectional Study
Behavioral Sciences · 2026-09-24 · Added 28 October 2026
A Serbian cross-sectional study of 151 prehospital emergency physicians using the Maslach Burnout Inventory found higher emotional exhaustion was associated with less favourable self-rated health (OR per 10-point increase 1.31, 95% CI 1.04-1.64), with depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment showing no clear adjusted associations.
- Study type
- Cross-sectional
- Design
- Cross-sectional study, ordinal regression models, convenience sample
- Participants
- 151 prehospital emergency physicians, one Belgrade EMS
- Main finding
- Higher emotional exhaustion was associated with less favourable self-rated health (OR per 10-point increase 1.31, 95% CI 1.04-1.64); the association weakened after mutual adjustment (OR 1.30, 95% CI 0.96-1.75); depersonalisation and reduced personal accomplishment showed no clear associations
- Caveat
- Cross-sectional convenience sample from a single physician-staffed service — no conclusions about direction or causality
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Serbia crews its ambulances with physicians, but the emotional exhaustion and perceived health link is workforce-wellbeing territory that translates to paramedic crews, whose burnout research shows the same pattern.
Learning goal
Understand how emotional exhaustion relates to how paramedics perceive their own health and wellbeing.
More
- Topic: Workforce & wellbeing
- Daily scan: 28 October 2026
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