Physician burnout assessed by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory - the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic: meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND

The aim of our meta-analysis was to determine the global prevalence of burnout among physicians measured by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI).

METHODS

A meta-analysis performed following the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for trials on the prevalence of physician's burnout syndrome. A literature search (October-November 2025) was performed, and pooled prevalence was estimated using a random-effects model. Joanna's Briggs Institute (JBI) quality assessment tool was used to evaluate the risk of bias. Cochrane I-squared test was used to evaluate the heterogeneity among studies. The meta-analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software (version 29.0.2.0.).

RESULTS

Thirty-nine cross-sectional studies containing 17,963 physicians were finally included in the analysis. The global prevalence of burnout was 52% (95% CI: 46%-57%). Pre-pandemic studies from Europe yielded a pooled prevalence of 34% (95% CI: 23%-46%), compared with 47% (95% CI: 34%-61%) during the COVID-19 era. In Asia, the pooled prevalence increased from 55% (95% CI: 46%-64%) before the pandemic to 66% (95% CI: 57%-74%) during the pandemic.

CONCLUSIONS

A large number of physicians were identified as having moderate-high burnout levels. The findings of this analysis highlight the need for policy measures aimed at enhancing the working environment of healthcare professionals and mitigating burnout.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251177705).

CLINICAL TRIAL NUMBER: Not applicable.