Burnout in health students and its relationship with demographic and academic characteristics: a survey-based study.

BACKGROUND: Healthcare education demands the acquisition of clinical and interpersonal competencies under high academic pressure, exposing students to chronic stressors that may lead to burnout. Burnout among healthcare students and professionals has become a prevalent issue with significant academic and psychological consequences. This study aimed to examine the association of burnout levels among health sciences students with their sociodemographic and academic characteristics at a Chilean university. METHODS: A total of 879 students from four programs—Medicine (n = 275; 31.3%), Physical Therapy (n = 85; 9.7%), Pharmaceutical Chemistry (n = 334; 38.0%), and Speech Therapy (n = 185; 21.0%)—participated through quota sampling. Participants completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory–Student Survey (MBI-SS) and a sociodemographic-academic questionnaire. Ethical approval was obtained from the institutional Ethics, Bioethics, and Biosafety Committee, and all participants provided informed consent. Descriptive analyses and multiple linear regressions were performed using gender, age, paid employment, course failure, institution type, and year of study as predictors. RESULTS: Emotional Exhaustion (EE) showed the highest mean scores, followed by Lack of Personal Accomplishment (LPA) and Depersonalization (DP). Higher EE was associated with female gender and being in the fourth year. The regression models were statistically significant (p < 0.05), explaining 10.5% of EE, 5.8% of LPA, and 10.2% of DP variance. Greater LPA was linked to being female and enrolled in the second or third year, while higher DP was associated with younger age, male gender, paid employment, and being in the fourth year. Conversely, lower DP levels were observed among students from private, fee-paying schools and those studying Physical Therapy or Speech Therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Burnout among health sciences students showed distinct gender and program-related patterns. Female students and those in advanced years reported greater emotional exhaustion and diminished personal accomplishment, while male and younger students presented higher depersonalization. These findings underscore the need for targeted institutional strategies promoting psychological well-being and resilience, particularly in medicine and pharmaceutical programs.