Sick leave after a counseling intervention for burnout gets doctors back on track: A three-year follow-up study of Norwegian doctors

Introduction
Burnout and mental distress in working doctors increase the risk for both sub-optimal treatment of patients and negative health consequences for the doctors. Doctors are known to have low rates of sickness absence and are reluctant to seek help, especially for mental distress. We examined whether a spell of sickness absence after a counseling intervention could predict that doctors back in work three years later experienced less burnout.

Methods
Two hundred and twenty-seven doctors who attended a counseling intervention for burnout, at the Resource Centre Villa Sana in Norway 2003-2005, were followed with self-report assessments at baseline and at one- and three-year follow-ups. We selected the doctors who were back in work three years after the intervention and studied whether number of weeks of sickness absence could independently predict reduction in emotional exhaustion.

Results
149 (65 men and 84 women) of the 184 doctors who completed the assessment forms were working at follow-up. The mean level of emotional exhaustion (scale 1-5) for this group was reduced from 3.00 (SD 0.96) at baseline to 2.37 (SD 0.79) at follow-up (p<0.001). The number of weeks of sickness absence after the intervention was a significant positive predictor of this reduction (β=.31, p<0.001), also after including sex, age, neuroticism, work hours and other forms for treatment in the linear regression model.

Discussion
The number of weeks of sickness absence after a counseling intervention for burnout had a positive effect on reduction in emotional exhaustion from baseline to three-year follow-up among doctors back at work. Sick leave can thus prevent later burnout in doctors, which is of importance both for their patients and for the doctors themselves.