Burnout syndrome as an occupational disease in the European Union: an exploratory study

Abstract

The risk of psychological disorders influencing the health of workers increases in accordance with growing requirements on employees across various professions. This study aimed to compare approaches to the burnout syndrome in European countries. A questionnaire focusing on stress-related occupational diseases was distributed to national experts of 28 European Union countries. A total of 23 countries responded. In 9 countries (Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Latvia, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden) burnout syndrome may be acknowledged as an occupational disease. Latvia has burnout syndrome explicitly included on the List of ODs. Compensation for burnout syndrome has been awarded in Denmark, France, Latvia, Portugal and Sweden. Only in 39% of the countries a possibility to acknowledge burnout syndrome as an occupational disease exists, with most of compensated cases only occurring in recent years. New systems to collect data on suspected cases have been developed reflecting the growing recognition of the impact of the psychosocial work environment. In agreement with the EU legislation, all EU countries in the study have an action plan to prevent stress at the workplace.

Work engagement and burnout: Testing the theoretical continuums of identification and energy

“…For example, increasingly, employees are reporting higher and higher levels of chronic stress and exhaustion related to various dynamics and levels of burnout (Lastovkova et al, 2018;Riethof et al, 2019;Taris et al, 2017).…”

Latent Profiles of Burnout, Self-Esteem and Depressive Symptomatology among Teachers

“…However, it is noteworthy that, in nine of 23 European countries, burnout is not considered a professional illness yet. In fact, it is only possible to recognize exhaustion as an occupational disease in 39% of countries [3].…”

El Síndrome de Burnout en Estudiantes de la Facultad Odontología de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba

“…Se aplicó un cuestionario autoadministrado de carácter anónimo validado (Maslach Burnout Inventory) 5,6 , que comprende 22 ítems relacionados a Despersonalización (DP), Realización Personal (RP).y de Agotamiento Emocional (AE) y otras variables como: cantidad de horas semanales que asisten a clases, edad, sexo, si posee algún trabajo.…”