Affiliations: Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Vinderen DPS, Oslo,
Norway | Institute of Psychiatry, University of Oslo,
Norway | Institute of Psychology, University of Oslo,
Norway | Department of Social Work and Health Sciences,
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway | The Research Institute, Norwegian Medical Association,
Oslo, Norway | Institute of Health Management and Health Economics,
University of Oslo, Norway
Abstract: Occupational and gender differences were investigated in the
relationship between burnout and musculoskeletal pain in the head, neck,
shoulders, and back. Representative samples of lawyers, physicians, nurses,
teachers, church ministers, bus drivers, and information technology workers in
Norway (N = 4507) were analyzed using structural equation
modeling. The exhaustion dimension of burnout was positively associated with
musculoskeletal pain in all groups, and the strength of the relationship ranged
from moderate to strong. The disengagement dimension of burnout was
negatively associated with musculoskeletal pain in five groups and only ranged
from −0.15 to −0.42. Professional
efficacy was slightly weaker, and inconsistently (i.e., both positively and
negatively) associated with musculoskeletal pain in four of the groups. There
were larger differences in the strength of the relationships between the seven
occupational groups than between males and females within the same profession.
Results suggest that burnout and musculoskeletal pain are related, but the
strength of the associations varies according to gender and occupation.
Overall, occupational factors appear to be stronger predictors of the
co-occurrence of burnout and musculoskeletal pain than gender.
