Burnout and Related Conditions in Managers—A five-year Longitudinal Study

Background: There is a paucity of longitudinal studies that assess simultaneously the interaction between and effects of
well-established health-related factors and a lack of research that provides results that can be understood by practitioners
with a scientific background and that have implications for better practice that have a good chance of being implemented. We analysed associations of burnout with vital exhaustion (VE), depression, social support, effort-reward imbalance,
sleep quality, recovery, health and health impairments, and physical activity in a sample of approximately 200 managers
over five years. Burnout was assessed using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) in a modified form for managers
in both English and German, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Results: Intratest analyses yielded substantial
correlations between scores on the scales for burnout, VE, and depression. Newly developed scales for recovery, social
support, person-work match, and work strain showed plausible associations with the burnout and depression scales. In
time-lagged analyses, burnout predicted depression, but depression did not predict burnout. Conclusion: The CBI yielded
results that have important implications for practice that the MBI did not