People who suffer from job burnout may be prone to developing type 2 diabetes, according to a study of 677 mostly male middle-aged Israeli workers, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine.
Samuel Melamed of Tel Aviv University in Israel examined 677 Israeli workers from 1998 to 2003. 77 percent of the workers were men with an average age of 43.
By the end of the study, 17 workers had developed type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that people who experienced ?burnout? were 1.84 times more likely to become diabetic.
Burnout is a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest (depersonalisation or cynicism), usually in the work context. It is also used as an English slang term to mean exhaustion. Burnout is often construed as the result of a period of expending too much effort at work while having too little recovery, but it is sometimes argued that workers with particular personality traits (especially neuroticism) are more prone to experiencing burnout. Further, it appears that researchers disagree about the nature of burnout. While many researchers argue that burnout refers exclusively to a work-related syndrome of exhaustion and depersonalization/cynicism, others feel that burnout is a special case of the more general clinical depression or just a form of extreme fatigue/exhaustion (thus omitting the cynicism component).
Health care workers are often prone to burnout. Cordes and Doherty (1993), in their study of employees within this industry, found that workers who have frequent intense or emotionally charged interactions with others are more susceptible to burnout. Still, burnout can affect workers of any kind, including students at the high school and college levels.
High stress jobs can lead to more burnout than normal ones. Cab drivers, air traffic controllers, musicians, teachers, artists and high technology professionals seem more prone to burnout than others. General Practitioners seem to have the highest proportion of burnout cases (According to a recent Dutch study in Psychological Reports, no less than 40% of these experienced high levels of burnout.)