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08/11/2025
Burnout among caregivers, whether professional or informal, is a worrying phenomenon studied across various contexts such as care for the elderly, children with chronic illnesses, or healthcare professionals. The data presented mainly concerns professional burnout, but also that of informal caregivers, emphasizing its characteristics, influencing factors, consequences, and potential mitigation strategies.
Note: This article was written by Archie, the AI research assistant of PaperDoc and provides a synthesis of recent scientific literature on the subject of caregiver burnout.
A moderate to high rate of burnout is observed among healthcare professionals: 70% among general practitioners, 89% among medical interns, 66% among nurses, with significantly higher levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization among interns and general practitioners [9]. Among medical caregivers in China, the average quality of working life (QWL) score is 126.94±16.69, while professional exhaustion (burnout) and effort-reward imbalance (ERI) are negatively correlated with work-related quality of life. Burnout mediates 58.65% of the effect of effort-reward imbalance on this quality [2]. For oncology nurses, emotional fatigue is common but can be reduced by practices that encourage creative support and strengthen bonds with patients and caregivers, thus improving motivation and reducing burnout [16].
Among 184 caregivers (family or professional), 33.7% show high emotional exhaustion, 47.3% high depersonalization, and 22.3% a low sense of personal accomplishment. Regarding anxiety, 61.4% of caregivers report moderate anxiety [1]. For informal caregivers, burnout is more pronounced than among non-caregivers, especially when it comes to emotional exhaustion, with an impact on various personal and professional areas [3]. Among family caregivers of hemodialysis patients, 78% experience "little personal burnout," but significant psychological distress is noted, related to factors such as age, gender, marital status, education, and smoking [18].
Among professional caregivers, age, working hours, job stress, and training have a significant impact on burnout levels, while experience and education affect anxiety [1]. Support from supervisors is associated with decreased emotional exhaustion (37.28% show high EE) among professionals in Togo, and optimism reduces depersonalization (13.62%) and increases the sense of personal accomplishment (19.71% have low PA) [11].
For caregivers, a combination of factors such as self-stigmatization, family resilience, and unmet needs results in varying levels of burnout. For example, a three-way interaction effect shows that burnout is high among mothers of children with special needs who have little family support and high needs, depending on the level of self-stigmatization [5]. The load perceived by caregivers is positively correlated with emotional burnout and depersonalization, and moderated by emotional empathy [4].
Burnout is strongly linked to depression, low subjective health, and, among informal caregivers, a higher probability of physical violence towards the person cared for (but not psychological violence) [8]. Moderate correlations (r=0.47) are noted between the severity of symptoms in schizophrenic patients and the levels of depression and burnout in their caregivers, with diminished psychological resilience [6].
Burnout affects the quality of care provided, as seen among peritoneal dialysis patients where such burnout leads to thoughts of stopping treatment and transfers to hemodialysis [17]. For caregivers of chimpanzees, burnout can degrade the relationship and quality of care provided to the animals [14].
The creation of community support networks targeting family caregivers, offering advice, support groups, training, and relaxation activities helps reduce burnout and prevent potentially severe negative outcomes [15].
Fostering intrinsic motivation among residential caregivers in China is associated with better pay satisfaction through reduced burnout (β = -0.46, p < 0.01) [7]. Simultaneous interventions aimed at reducing self-stigmatization, enhancing family resilience, and meeting caregivers' needs can help modulate burnout [5]. The management of emotional empathy and the enhancement of social support also appear as significant moderators [4].
Strengthening resilience against burnout involves adaptation, developing coping strategies to build a new normal, and resorting to family and spiritual supports [17]. In oncology, encouraging and creatively celebrating patients and their caregivers stimulates professional motivation and reduces exhaustion [16].
Caregiver burnout is common among both professionals and informal caregivers, with major impacts on caregivers' mental health and the quality of care. Influencing factors include job stress, workload, social support, education, intrinsic motivation, and family dynamics. Validated, specific measurement tools facilitate its detection. Comprehensive approaches combining organizational support, strengthening individual and family resilience, and targeted psychological interventions are necessary to prevent and mitigate this complex syndrome [1][3][9][2][5][4].
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