Burnout is a state of mental and physical exhaustion related to work. It is manifested in a variety of professions and is prevalent in contexts in which health professionals are required to interact directly with the public.

To estimate the burnout syndrome (BOS) prevalence and to identify its associated factors among medical residents.

A descriptive and analytic study conducted during a period from 2012 until 2014, including 184 residents exerting at the two university hospitals of Sfax, Tunisia. Data collection was conducted using an anonymous self-questionnaire, including demographic items and working conditions items. Maslach Burn-out Inventory (MBI) was used to assess BOS.

The average age was 25.14 ± 1.47 years. The sex-ratio was 0.65. The majority (154 residents) was single. Over than half (58.2%) of medical residents endure a high emotional exhaustion, 62.5% a high depersonalisation and 12.5% a low personal accomplishment. About eighty percent (79.3%) of them were in burn out with 37% at intermediate and 11.3% at a severe degree. No statistical association was found between the personal characteristics and BOS. Whereas, several factors related to employment status were correlated with the presence of BOS such us: number of working hours > 30 h/week, a number of free weekends < 2/month and a number of days off ≤ 30 days/year. In addition, we found that psychotropic and alcohol consumption were significantly associated to BOS with respectively P = 0.050 and P = 0.002.

Burnout is a worrying reality among young doctors. Individual as well as organizational interventions should be targeted to prevention.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.