Burnout syndrome,work ability,quality of life and physical activity in teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Campo Grande,Brazil

1 Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant health, social, psychological, economic, and educational changes around the world [1, 2]. Among these changes, the closure of schools has been one of the most widely implemented measure since the beginning of the pandemic to help maintain social distancing and slow down the spread of the virus [3]. In Brazil, the teaching environment has also changed over the course of 2020. In March, the Ministry of Health determined social isolation and the Ministry of Education suspended classes in the education system and authorized the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) to continue classes during the school year, in line with policies adopted in other nations. Thus, 182,600 institutions suspended classroom classes, leaving 47 million Brazilian students in primary, secondary and higher education without classes [4].

To facilitate online learning, teachers had to upskill in technology and learn new hybrid models of teaching without ample preparation or time to do so. In addition to the adaptation of educational content and delivery format, teachers also had to learn new ways to engage with and motivate students during online lessons. For many teachers, employing ICT involves a substantial change in their usual way of engaging with and thinking about the teaching process, which generates stress [5, 6]. Researchers have shown that, since the closure of schools, teachers have accumulated psychological symptoms, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, worldwide [7–9].

This work context to which teachers are exposed can trigger what the literature has called the burnout syndrome [10]. This syndrome is characterized by a combination of negative conditions such as depersonalization, personal inefficiency and, above all, emotional exhaustion, which refers to the overload generated by emotional tension due to the numerous daily responsibilities [11]. Burnout syndrome is responsible for emotional overtiredness among teachers, usually because of their exhausting professional activity. The working conditions faced make the teaching profession one of the most vulnerable to burnout, and several factors can influence this vulnerability: exposure to stressful situations, demand for productivity, excessive workload, overcrowded classes of students, work to be done at home during overtime, little professional recognition, low salaries, limited leisure, and social moments, among others [12, 13].

Work ability in teachers is another aspect that might be affected by COVID-19 since it is closed related to high mental demand experienced in schools, which was generated by time pressure and by dealing with students, triggering stress symptoms and psychosomatic diseases, lack of pleasure, lack of physical activity, high demand of mental work and lack of autonomy, among others [14]. Nevertheless, no studies have been found in the literature to date that assess and correlate the burnout syndrome with the work ability of teachers, especially those in basic education.

Therefore, this study was carried out with the objective of identifying the level of association between burnout syndrome, work ability, quality of life and physical activity in basic education teachers during the COVI-19 pandemic. Our hypothesis is that burnout syndrome is highly associated with work ability and quality of life is highly associated with physical activity levels.

2 Methods

This is a cross-sectional study with teachers from the Municipal Education Network in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, who work in urban schools in the elementary education stage of the various teaching areas and curricular components.

As inclusion criteria, the following elements were adopted: a) work in elementary education in the various teaching areas; b) active registration under an effective contract regime (provided for public tender) or temporary (convened); c) both sexes; d) minimum experience of six months.

The following items were established as exclusion criteria: a) work exclusively in Early Childhood Education and/or in Youth and Adult Education; b) being away or on leave; c) exercise different functions to teaching or replacement; d) less than six months’ experience.

Data collection took place from September 2020 to April 2021 through an online form linked to Google Forms, made available by school messaging apps with authorization from the respective directions, with questions sociodemographic variables, quality of life assessment, Work Ability Index (WAI) and identification of burnout syndrome. The Google Forms link was sent to all 408 teachers who were eligible to participate in the study.

The form was divided into five sections, described below:

First section: information about the research and digital signature of the free and informed consent term;

For data analysis, descriptive statistics were applied to sociodemographic and professional characteristics and life habits, as well as to stipulate the quality of life scores obtained by the WHOQOL-bref, the WAI and aspects of the syndrome of burnout, using absolute and relative frequency tables.

The same occurred for the total values of the quality of life scores and their domains (physical, psychological, social relationships and environment), which had their score transformed to a scale from 0 to 100, where, the higher the score, the more positive. it is the assessment of quality of life and its domains [18].

The association between aspects of burnout syndrome, WAI, quality of life and its domains performed by Pearson’s correlation test was calculated using the Pearson correlation test and interpreted according to the guidelines given by Portney and Watkins [22]: a) little or no relationship: 0.00 to 0.25; b) weak ratio: 0.25 to 0.5; c) moderate ratio: 0.5 to 0.75; d) excellent ratio: above 0.75.

The sample size calculation was performed assuming a cross-sectional design, where groups of practicing and non-practicing physical activity teachers were compared in terms of Burnout levels. Standardizing 5% alpha error, 20% beta error (80% power), under an effect size of 0.3829 and an allocation ratio of 0,5, the need for 192 participants was found. In order to minimize possible sample losses, the researchers collected a sample 5% above the minimum value defined in the sample calculation.

The sample was divided between practitioners and non-practitioners of physical activity and the results referring to the burnout scale, WAI, total score of quality of life and its domains were compared using the Student’s t test.

The significance level used for all analyzes was 5% (p < 0.05) with a confidence interval of 95% using the statistical program Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS), version 20.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA).

The study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Research with Human Beings of the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (Opinion number 3,854,433) and strictly followed the standards required by the Declaration of Helsinki [20] and by Resolutions number 466 [21] and number 510 [22], from the National Health Council of the Federative Republic of Brazil.

3 Results

Two hundred and forty-eight teachers who worked in municipal schools in Campo Grande/MS participated in the research, representatives of the seven urban regions of the city. Data from 46 teachers who did not meet the inclusion criteria were excluded, because they had less than six months of experience (n = 2), because they performed functions other than teaching (n = 16), because they worked exclusively in Early Childhood Education and/or Youth and Adult Education (n = 22) and for not authorize the use of data (n = 6).

The final sample consisted of 202 teachers, with a response rate of 49,50% (202/408), and a mean age of 40.2 years (±8.7). Most study participants were women (77.7%), married or in a stable union (72.3%), with a per capita family income of 2.1 to 4 minimum wages (52.9%) and schooling at the level of specialization (73.7%) (Table 1).

Regarding professional characteristics, there was a predominance of teachers who worked for up to 14 years in teaching (70.3%), who taught in up to two schools (82.7%) with a weekly workload of more than 20 hours (62.4%) and under an effective contract (62.8%) at the time of the survey (Table 1).

With regard to lifestyle habits, 5% of the teachers said they were smokers, 43.6% reported using alcohol and 40.1% did not practice physical activity regularly (Table 1). Despite this, most participants believe that physical activity helps at work (98.2%) and shows interest in carrying out an exercise program during work (83.2%).

Overall, the teachers who participated in this study positively evaluated their quality of life (good/very good = 55.9%) and felt satisfied with their health (satisfied/very satisfied = 53.4%). However, a large number of professors judge their quality of life negatively (very bad/bad = 17.3%) or indifferently (neither bad nor good = 26.8%) and do not feel satisfied with their health (very dissatisfied/dissatisfied = 20.8%) or classified it with indifference (neither dissatisfied nor satisfied = 25.8%) (Table 2).

The total WHOQOL-bref score on a scale of 0 to 100 points had an average of 60.7 (±12.3) and a median of 62.7 points. When analyzing the different domains of quality of life, it was noticed that the Environment domain had the lowest value (median = 56.2 points) in relation to the other domains and all comparisons between the domains performed by the Friedman test indicated a statistically significant difference (p≤0.05), except between the Psychological and Social Relations domain (p > 0.05) (Table 3).

With reference to the WAI, which assesses the physical, mental and social capacity of workers, the average score found was 38.9 (±6.9) points, where a positive result was obtained, since most of the professors had a good (43.1%) or excellent capacity (27.7%), however, it was observed that a good part of the professors had a low (9.4%) or moderate capacity (19.8%) (Table 4).

Regarding the aspects of burnout syndrome, most educators had low emotional fatigue (41.6%), low depersonalization (75.7%) and high personal fulfillment (58.4%). Despite the favorable results, there was a considerable prevalence of high emotional fatigue (37.1%) and low personal fulfillment (22.8%) (Table 4).

With regard to the association between aspects of the burnout syndrome, WAI, quality of life and its domains, performed by Pearson’s correlation test, it was found that the correlations ranged from little/no relationship to a moderate relationship. The highest correlations found indicate that the greater the emotional fatigue, the lower the WAI (r = – 0.60); and the higher the WAI, the higher the quality of life (r = 0.70) (Table 5).

Furthermore, moderate correlations were found with lower values for the following situations: a) the greater the emotional fatigue, the lower the quality of life (r = – 0.52) and the lower the psychological domain (r = – 0.50); b) the greater the personal fulfillment, the greater the quality of life (r = 0.54) and the greater the psychological domain (r = 0.50); c) the higher the WAI, the greater the physical domain (r = 0.57), the psychological domain (r = 0.57) and the environment domain (r = 0.55) (Table 5).

When comparing the aspects of the burnout syndrome, the WAI, the total score of quality of life and its domains with the practice of physical activity, it was found that the performance of physical activity was linked to a lower rate of fatigue emotional (p = 0.0019) and a better index of work ability (p = 0.038) (Table 6).

Although the results do not point to a statistically significant difference, teachers who reported practicing physical activity had better scores for quality of life and its domains, as well as a lower rate of depersonalization and greater personal fulfillment in relation to those who do not have this habit of life (Table 6).

Our sample showed a predominance of women (77.7%), with a mean age of 40.2±8.7. Our data reinforce the results of Carlotto and Palazzo [26], who showed a predominance of females (78.9%) between 31 and 40 years old (average of 36.8), and Birolim et al. [27] with a sample predominantly of women aged over 40 years. Fernandes, Rocha and Costa-Oliveira [28] emphasizes that the specific relationship to the predominance of women exercising the practice of teaching in basic education, the fact can be explained by the historical process of women’s entry into the labor market, where most of them entered the educational field, with the teaching activity labeled as a continuation of domestic work.

Concerning the level of education, 17.8% had only an undergraduate degree and 82.8% had a graduate degree (specialization, master’s and doctorate). This number represents almost double the national average, which in 2020 was 43.4% of professors with postgraduate degrees [29].

Regarding lifestyle habits, 59.9% reported practicing physical activity regularly, data corroborated by Santos et al. [30] who found that approximately one third of the 6,510 teachers in their sample reported the practice of sufficient physical activity (≥150 minutes/week). Furthermore, in our study, 98.2% believe that physical activity helps at work and 83.2% expressed interest in carrying out a physical activity program at school aimed at teachers.

Comparing the aspects of the burnout syndrome, the WAI, the total score of quality of life and its domains with the practice of physical activity, it was found that the performance of physical activity was associated with a lower index of emotional fatigue (p = 0.0019) and a better index of work ability (p = 0.038). Although the results do not point to a statistically significant difference, teachers who reported practicing physical activity had better quality of life scores and their domains, as well as a lower rate of depersonalization and greater personal fulfillment compared to those who do not have this habit of life.

When comparing scores of quality of life according to the WAI of practitioners and non-practitioners of physical activity, we found that people who practice physical activity have better WAI than people who do not practice physical activity. According to Martinez, Latorre and Fischer [38], the beneficial effects of physical activity on the work ability of different groups of workers can occur through increased daily energy consumption, reduction of body fat, maintenance of aerobic capacity, increased resistance and muscle strength and better perception of health status.

The results of the present study also show that the practice of physical activity is linked to a lower rate of emotional fatigue in burnout syndrome. However, there was no relationship between the practice of activity and the domains of depersonalization and personal fulfillment. According to Freitas et al. [39], a physical activity program in the workplace was able to improve work capacity, general quality of life and some physical symptoms, in addition to improving levels of satisfaction with health, especially among teachers, being a good investment proposal [40, 41].

Regarding the domains of quality of life, 49% of teachers consider it good. When specifically evaluated each of the domains, it was found that the Environmental Domain had the lowest scores. This domain is related to the physical (professional) environment, financial resources and health and social care (availability and quality). According to Tabeleão, Tomasi and Neves [31], a possible explanation for this finding would be that the environment domain includes financial and social aspects such as health, education and leisure, and that to guarantee better remuneration it is necessary for the teacher to work more, take over more schools, more classes and consequently your rest time is reduced. The data support this hypothesis, as we found that 82.67% of teachers work in up to 2 schools, while 17.32% work in more than 3.

Our results also demonstrate that the evaluated teachers had moderate WAI for 29.2% and good for 70.8% , findings corroborated by Vedovato and Monteiro [32]. According to Tuomi et al. [33] WAI refers to how well a worker is, or will be, at present or in the near future, and how capable he or she can perform his or her job, depending on the requirements, his or her health status and their physical and mental capabilities.

Regarding the burnout syndrome, the results presented indicated that most of the participating professors had mild depersonalization (75.7%), followed by a high rate of personal fulfillment (58.4%) and mild emotional fatigue (41.6%). Our results are above those found in other studies such as those by Batista et al. [34] and Silva, Bolsoni-Silva and Loureiro [35] who found mild depersonalization in 22 % , high achievement rate in 11 % , mild fatigue in 37 %.

It was found that 8.3% of the evaluated teachers had a high level of depersonalization, 33.6% a high level of emotional exhaustion and 56.6% a high level of low personal fulfillment at work. In the study by Silva, Bolsoni-Silva e Loureiro [35], it was noted that of the 100 participating teachers, 40% of them showed emotional detachment, followed by 37% emotional exhaustion, 22% felt dehumanized and only 11% had low personal fulfillment.

By correlating the WAI with the quality of life domains, it was found that participants who presented good WAI exhibited better perception regarding the physical, psychological, social domains and in relation to quality of life in general. In the investigation carried out by Costa et al. [37], with an industrial population, was found that the ability to work in the industrial population studied is significantly correlated with the perception of all domains of quality of life. In other words, the perception of work capacity is not only associated with occupational exercise, but also with the external everyday sphere [38].

When verifying studies that correlate the quality of life domains to the WAI scores with nurses, the environment and physical were the quality of life domains that most correlated with the perceived work ability, emphasizing the working conditions and the requirement of shifting shifts and physical effort, in the specific context in which these women worked.

Based on the level of significance presented between the scores of the questionnaires, it is understood that work ability, a subjective and conscious condition, is directly related to the domains of quality of life. That is, the domains of quality of life will influence the act or effect of perceiving their professional or personal performance.

The burnout scores on emotional fatigue and depersonalization showed a correlation with the WAI, indicating that, the greater the lack of interest in oneself and the commotions of withdrawal from one’s own body or mental processes, the lower their professional performance. Personal fulfillment, on the other hand, was positively correlated with the WAI, that is, the better your perception of activities and work performance, the greater your personal fulfillment.

It also states that it is necessary that organizational stress situations and risky activities within the work environment, such as biological, physical, chemical, psychological, among others, directly affect the mental health of the professional, and may reflect negatively on the WAI and decrease work ability [35].

5 Conclusion

The associations carried out in this sample indicate that those teachers who showed greater emotional fatigue showed less ability to work, which may be linked to more extensive workloads. With regard to the variable referring to emotional fatigue from the burnout syndrome, a negative association with the physical, social and environmental domain of quality of life is also expressed, which may be relevant to the work environment.