Factors Associated with Burnout in Clinical Year Medical Students in Terengganu, Malaysia

Abstract   Many studies have shown that burnout had a detrimental effect on the well-being of medical students. In medical students, the prevalence of burnout increased as the year progressed. The Objective of the study was to determine the predictors for burnout in clinical year medical students. There were 120 clinical year medical students selected for this study using stratified random sampling. Students’ demographics, academic data, Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) and USM emotional intelligence Inventory (USMEQ-i) in Google Forms were distributed using WhatsApp application. Data include entry CGPA and whether they made the correct decision to do medicine and ever thought of dropping out. The response was in the form of ‘Yes/No’. Burnout was categorised into significant and non-significant burnout based on the mean CBI score. Each factor was categorized into two categories was analysed using  Chi-Square test. Further analysis was done using multiple logistic regression.  There were 105 students responded. The percentage of students categorised as having significant burnout was 41.0% (95% CI 31.5; 50.1). Incorrect decision to do medicine, ever thought of dropping out and lower emotional intelligence were significant predictors for burnout with odd ratio of  6.06, 3.06 and 3.24 respectively. As a conclusion, correct decision to do medicine and emotional intelligence were important predictors for burnout in clinical year medical students. They may be considered as important factors to be looked into during student selection interview.   Keywords: Burnout, medical students, emotional intelligence