At risk of burnout? This test designed by scientists will help you clear your doubts

Paxels

A new test tells you if you’re close to burnout.

Health – You are stressed. You are bored with your work, you are not fulfilled professionally. Physically, it drains you of every last drop of your energy. There is a risk that you are approaching burnout. Recognized as an occupational phenomenon by the WHO in May 2019, it refers to physical and/or psychological fatigue. To diagnose it with certainty, your doctor will be the best judge, but before that, it is possible to do a test yourself.

Self-diagnosis of burn-out is not new: it already exists, of (very) variable quality. But the latest, just created by researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, is based on real scientific expertise, and without the limitations of its predecessor. The method is remarkably simple.

5 minute questionnaire

In form, this test called the BTA (Burn-Out Assessment Tool) looks like a very classic and quick questionnaire, which can usually be completed in five minutes. It is available in two versions (one focused on work and the other more general) each containing 33 statements to which you must answer by checking boxes from 1 (never) to 5 (always).

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This is what the test looks like, the link to which is at the end of the article.

In more detail, this questionnaire has two parts. The first concerns the primary (or core) symptoms of burnout. This ranges from fatigue to mental distance to cognitive and emotional impairment. The second looks at secondary symptoms, mainly physical problems.

To create this test, researchers used a sample of 493 people. So they submitted a whole series of questions and statements to better identify the factors that can lead to burn-out. Important clarification, this test does not try to know the causes and consequences of burnout, but only tries to know whether you are in this situation or not.

Self-assessment, not diagnosis

After completing the questionnaire, you just need to do a small calculation to know your result. First of all, you have to add all the checked boxes. If we always answer 4 times, that makes 20 (4 times 5) and so on. The figure obtained should be divided by 23, the number of questions (33 if we consider questions on secondary attributes). Thus we get a number between 1 and 5: the closer it is to 5, the greater the chances of burnout.

But once again, this test is not proof that you are experiencing burnout. This is just a self-assessment to help predict problems and refer people to health professionals. They are the ones who will do a more in-depth assessment and then establish a diagnosis. It is now possible to conduct this test through this link.

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