Prevalence and pattern of burnout syndrome and associated quality of life amongst undergraduates of a tertiary institution in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Previous studies show that academic burnout among undergraduates in Nigeria is prevalent and impacts negatively on their mental wellbeing and quality of life. Few studies have looked at the relationship between burnout, psychological morbidity and quality of life. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of burnout syndrome among undergraduates and its relationship with psychological morbidity and quality of life.
Methods: A total of 933 undergraduates from the faculties of education, law and medicine, Bayero University Kano, participated in this descriptive, cross sectional study. Study instruments included a socio-demographic questionnaire, Maslach Burnout Inventory-students’ survey, 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire, and WHO Quality of Life Survey-Abbreviated Version. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 16 was used to analyse the data using Chi square and ANOVA and a p-value of 0.05 or less was considered statistically significant.
Results: This showed a burnout prevalence of 153(16.4%) for emotional exhaustion, 230(24.7%) for cynicism and 194(20.8%) for reduced academic efficacy. Burnout increased with increasing length of academic activity, increasing psychological morbidity and decreasing Quality of Life. Education students had more burnout on cynicism subscale while medical students had more burnout on academic efficacy subscale. Overall, law students were the least burnout.
Conclusion: Burnout is common among undergraduates of Bayero University Kano. Families (through participatory parenting) and university authorities should put in place functional programmes to reduce the burden of burnout and more researches are needed to gain deeper understanding of burnout and its effects on students’ mental health.