[The burnout syndrome in medical residents working long periods].

Objective: to evaluate the burnout syndrome in medical residents with working periods longer than 80 hours per week.

Methodology: an analytical cross-sectional study was conducted with medical residents working at Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social hospital in Veracruz, México. The residents were classified in two groups. One group working for > or = 80 h per week (study group, SG) and another group working < 80 h per week (comparison group, CG) were studied. Participants were selected by simple random sampling. The clinical evaluation instrument was the scale of Maslach burnout inventory.

Results: 143 medical residents were included in the sample (SG n = 72, CG n = 71); the average age was 29.6 +/- 2.5 years, 65 % were males and 51 % were unmarried. Their length of service was 2.2 +/- 0.7 years. The mean working time was 100.5 +/- 7.2 hours per week for the SG and 64.4 +/- 9.3 hours for the CG. Burnout syndrome was present in 46 (63.8 %) medical residents with long workdays (p = 0.002); it was observed more frequently in those residents that were on call 3 times per week (p = 0.002) and among surgery residents (p = 0.035).

Conclusion: working periods longer than 80 h per week are related to the appearance of burnout syndrome.