Mindfulness-Based Interventions to Reduce Burnout in Primary Healthcare Professionals: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) are reported by experimental studies as practical approaches to reduce burnout in primary healthcare professionals (PHCP). However, to date, no research has synthesized the evidence to determine the overall effects of MBIs for reducing burnout in PHCP. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to analyze the effects of MBIs to reduce burnout in PHCP. We searched articles in the PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus databases from inception to September 2021 using MeSH terms: “mindfulness”, “burnout”, and “primary healthcare”. Two reviewers extracted the data and assessed the risk of bias. We used a random-effects meta-analysis to calculate the standardized mean differences (SMD) and mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA) domains of burnout. Of 61 records, ten were included (n = 417). Overall, the studies were rated as having a high risk of bias and limited quality evidence. MBIs significantly reduced EE (SMD = −0.54, 95%CI: −0.72 to −0.36; MD = −5.89, 95%CI: −7.72 to −4.05), DP (SMD = −0.34, 95%CI: −0.52 to −0.17; MD = −1.96, 95%CI: −2.96 to −0.95), and significantly increased PA (SMD = 0.34, 95%CI: 0.17 to 0.52; MD = 2.05, 95%CI: 1.04 to 3.06). Although further high-quality research is needed, our findings support the implementation of MBIs for reducing burnout in PHCP.