Investigation of the effects of physical activities on occupational burnout, depression and sleep quality in physiotherapists working in pediatric rehabilitation

Our research was carried out to investigate the effects of the physical activity program applied to physiotherapists working in the rehabilitation center on quality of life, occupational burnout, depression and sleep quality. Thirty f physiotherapists were included in the study. Subjects were divided into two groups as control group (n=11) and training group (n=24) on a voluntary basis. The training group was given 12 weeks of physical activity (7 days a week / 40,000-65,000 steps). No extra activities were given to the control group, except for their daily activities. The occupational burnout of the physiotherapists included in both groups before and after 12 weeks of physical activity was evaluated with the Maslach Burnout Scale, their quality of life with the EQ-5D Quality of Life Scale, their sleep quality with the Pittsburg Sleep Quality, their depression with the Beck Depression Scale and their job satisfaction with the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale. At the end of 12 weeks, there was no change in the levels of job satisfaction, sleep quality, and depression levels in the training and control groups (p>0.05). A significant improvement in quality of life was observed in the control group (p<0.05). In the level of professional burnout, a decrease was found in the low personal achievement level in the training group (p<0.05) while there was no change in emotional exhaustion and depersonalization levels (p>0.05). When the evaluations between the groups were examined, a significant improvement was observed in the depersonalization parameter of the occupational burnout parameter (p<0.05), while no difference was observed in all other parameters (p>0.05). It was concluded that the physical activity added to the physical activities of the physiotherapists in their daily lives was effective on the low personal achievement and depersonalization sub-parameters of the occupational burnout inventory, but not on depression and quality of life.