Prevalence of burnout was higher in the West, but was otherwise independent of practice contexts
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, May 6, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Roughly one in 10 U.S. internal medicine physicians report a high degree of burnout, according to a study published online May 6 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Nathan Houchens, M.D., from the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined burnout levels and prevalence among U.S. internal medicine physicians across diverse geographic regions, facility types, and clinical settings. The analysis included survey responses from 629 physicians.
The researchers found that among all respondents, 9.8 percent met defined thresholds for all three burnout domains. There were no significant differences in burnout prevalence among physicians working at community medical centers (10.1 percent), Veterans Affairs facilities (10.9 percent), or academic medical centers (10.6 percent). There were also no significant differences between primary care physicians (11.8 percent) and hospitalists (9.4 percent). Geographically, burnout prevalence was similar in the Northeast (8.8 percent), Midwest (8.5 percent), and South (6.6 percent) but was significantly higher in the West (15.4 percent). Burnout prevalence was also similar among physicians working in the inpatient setting only (8.3 percent), the outpatient setting only (11.6 percent), and both settings (11.1 percent).
“Burnout remains prevalent among internal medicine physicians and does not seem to correlate to specific practice contexts,” the authors write.
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