Relationship Between Depressive Symptoms, Job Burnout And Career Choice Regret of Postgraduates In Stomatology
Abstract Background: In China, the shortage of doctors leads to an increase in workload. Especially after the new crown epidemic(COVID-19), excessive workload may lead to both physical and mental fatigue of doctors. Students' choices and opinions about the doctoral (health care)industry are particularly important. However, we don't know much about the work and living conditions of postgraduates in Stomatology. The purpose of this research is to investigate the depressive symptoms, job burnout and job satisfaction of individual dental graduate students and their personal professional characteristics after the outbreak of coronavirus disease-2019. Methods: The study directed to the correlations between depressive symptoms, burnout and career choice regret and their factors. The questionnaire covers demographic information, Maslach Burnout Inventory, and added programs to evaluate career choice regret. Results: There are 580 dental graduate students who will return to complete the questionnaire in 2021. After excluding partial questionnaires, the data of 558 participants were analyzed. In total, 44.1% of the participants had symptoms of depression. 41.0% of the participants experienced symptoms of burnout and 41.6% of the participants had regrets about their career choices. Binary logistic regression analysis showed that the average daily sleep time was associated to depressive symptoms (P<0.05). At the same time, job burnout (OR = 5.38, 95% CI 3.67–7.88) and career choice regret (OR = 2.07, 95% CI 1.41–3.05) were risk factors for depressive symptoms. There was a relationship between job burnout, average study time per week and average daily sleep time(all P<0.05). Depressive symptoms were the biggest risk factor for burnout (OR = 5.28, 95% CI3.62-7.69). There was a relationship between career choice regret, postgraduate entrance examination score and average daily sleep time(all P<0.05). Job burnout (OR = 1.82, 95% CI1.24-2.66) and depressive symptoms (OR = 2.15, 95% CI1.48-3.14) were both risk factors for career choice regret. Conclusions: Depressive symptoms, job burnout, and career choice regrets are common in postgraduates majoring in Stomatology . An in-depth understanding of relevant factors is essential to determine the reduction and prevention of burnout and career choice regrets in this group.