Burnout Syndrome and Meta-Analyses: Need for Evidence-Based Research in Occupational Health. Comments on Prevalence of Burnout in Medical and Surgical Residents: A Meta-Analysis. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health. 2019, 16, doi:10.3390/ijerph16091479

In their meta-analysis of observational studies, Low et al. showed a high prevalence
of burnout syndrome (BOS) among medical and surgical residents across the globe with an
aggregate prevalence of burnout as 51.0% (CI: 45.0–57%). However, the sample size in many
of the included studies was quite low (only 26 out of 47 included studies had a sample size of more
than 100 participants), and almost all of the 47 studies reported a rate of respondents of less than
80% (43 out of 47, 91.4%). Furthermore, in many of them, the rate of respondents was unknown
(5 out of 47) or less than 50% of eligible persons (23 out of 47 studies). As BOS is a self-reported
syndrome, healthcare professionals who decided to participate in those studies were many of those
affected by BOS, making the percentage of respondents potentially overstated due to the nonresponse
bias. Policy decision-making in public health relies on evidence-based research; therefore, quality
evaluation of studies in meta-analysis is essential to draw useful data for policymakers.