Qualidade de vida e esgotamento profissional do professor universitário

Abstract

Introduction: Quality of life reflects the individuals’ perception of how and if their needs are satisfied. Work-related factors, such as burnout, and other factors may affect quality of life. Objective: To assess the impact of burnout on faculties’ quality of life. We also aimed to verify the differences on burnout and quality of life according to socio-demographic variables. Materials and methods: Reliables tools were used to collect data (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory – OLBI and World Health Organization Quality of Life-Abbreviate – WHOQOL-Bref). Scores were analyzed using binary logistic regression and structural equation modelling. Results: The convenience sample was comprised of 366 faculties (mean age: 44.8 years; SD = 9.96). Most of them are men, married and worked with exclusive dedication. Scale reliability coefficients were higher than 0.70. More than a third of the participating faculties presented burnout. Men had a better quality of life compared to women in the physical health (p=0.05; d<0.5), psychological (p=0.05; d<0.5) and social relationship (p=0.05; d<0.5) domains. Women were more exhausted than men (p=0.05; d<0.5). Faculties with stable union had a better quality of life in the physical health (p<0.05; d<0.5) and psychological (p<0.05; d<0.5) domains. They were also less exhausted (p<0.05; d<0.5). Workload, post-graduation degree, field of knowledge and having another paid job did not held statistically significant differences regarding quality of life and burnout dimensions. Faculties who presented exhaustion had less probability of reporting a good quality of life (OR=0.28; 95% CI=0.12-0.63) and expressing satisfaction with their health (OR=0.20; 95% CI=0.10-0.40). Burnout showed an negative associative score by significant (λ=-0.87; p < 0.001) in quality of life. Conclusions: Burnout negatively affects faculties’ quality of life. Our results suggest the need to implement programs and actions addressed to faculties to prevent burnout, as their quality of life may affect the quality of education provided. For future research, other occupational variables that may affect faculties’ quality of life should be approached.