Medical students with co-occurring disorders are more susceptible to burnout than other students, a new Yale University study finds. The risk increases if the students identify as Asian or belong to a racial or ethnic group that is generally underrepresented in the medical field. According to the researchers, the findings highlight the importance of reducing bias and addressing the needs of students with disabilities.
The study was published January 10 in JAMA Network Open.
Previous studies have found that Asian, Black, and Hispanic medical students and students with disabilities are at higher risk of experiencing burnout than White students and students without disabilities, but little is known about how race, ethnicity, and disability status intersect.
In the new study, researchers used data from a 2019 and 2020 second-year questionnaire distributed by the Association of American Medical Colleges. The questionnaire contained self-reported information from 27,009 U.S. medical students. The survey assessed burnout using the Oldenburg Burnout Scale for Medical Students, a 16-item measure that assesses fatigue and apathy.
The researchers found that 12.6% of students who did not report a disability were at high risk for burnout, compared to more than 21% of students with only one disability and 31.3% of students with multiple disabilities, including physical, psychological, hearing, vision, learning, or disabilities caused by chronic illness.
“Students with disabilities and students with multiple disabilities were 70% and 254% more likely, respectively, to report burnout than their peers,” said Mithien Nguyen, an MD-PhD student at Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study.
Additionally, students who identify as Asian or of a race or ethnicity underrepresented in medicine (such as Black, Hispanic, Native Hawaiian, Alaska Native, or Pacific Islander) were at higher risk for burnout than their white peers with the same disabilities.
“When we look at intersectionality, it’s interesting to see the clear associations with disability and burnout in general, as well as the disparate impacts on underrepresented students,” said senior author Dawin Boatright, vice chair of research in the department of emergency medicine at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and formerly of the Yale School of Medicine.
To address burnout, medical schools need to provide adequate accommodations for students with disabilities, which has been proven to be effective in improving burnout, and ensure that the institutional process for obtaining accommodations is clear, Nguyen said. Additionally, the medical community needs to make an effort to combat stigma around disability that may prevent students from seeking the accommodations they need.
This not only benefits students, but also patients by ensuring a more diverse and accessible health care workforce, Nguyen explained.
“Physicians with disabilities are more empathetic and provide more thorough care, especially when treating patients with disabilities or chronic illnesses,” Nguyen says. “Diversity in the workforce leads to better care.”