Determination of Professional Job Burnout and Temperament (Mizaj) from the Viewpoint of Traditional Persian Medicine and Work-related Variables Among Iranian Dentists: a Cross-sectional Study

Background: Dentists are prone to professional burnout due to the nature of their work but this phenomenon could be prevented. Professional burnout has a great impact on different aspects of human life. No study has been published on determination of professional job burnout and temperament (Mizaj) from the viewpoint of Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM). The current study intends to touch upon this issue for the first time.

Methods: In order to conduct this Cross-Sectional study based on a randomized sampling method, 145 dentists completed the 22-item Maslach Burnout Inventory questionnaires (MBI), and the 20-item Salmannejad Mizaj questionnaire. The study started since February, 2020 and ended in August, 2020 in Yazd, Iran. A total of 120 valid questionnaires were collected, with a response rate of 82.76%. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, mean and standard deviation, analytical tests (including student t-test, one-way analysis of variance) by Spss17 (Chicago, USA) software.

Results: Overall, 8.3% of responders had high emotional exhaustion, while 65.8% and 33.3% had moderate depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment, respectively. With respect to the results, dentists with cold and dry temperaments experienced a higher level of burnout in emotional exhaustion while dentists with warm and wet temperaments had a higher level of burnout in depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment dimensions. There was an insignificant difference between age, gender, work experience, number of working days per week, number of patients per day with the dimensions of burnout. Pearson correlation coefficient indicated there was a positive correlation between avoidance job and emotional exhaustion (r = - 0.22, p = 0.016).

Conclusion: Based on the findings, it may conclude there was no significant difference in professional burnout between different temperaments among dentists.