Relationship btwn CFS, burnout, job satisfaction, social support & age among academics at a tertiary institution (2019) Coetzee et al

What does that mean? People who loved their jobs were more likely to suffer burnout? Or the reverse? It's completely unclear!

 

From the introduction:

Although Hyland has suggested that chronic fatigue syndrome develops because of immunological challenges and lifestyle pressures associated with being an academic, some researchers still confuse it with burnout [3]. Leoneet al.’s [7] findings contribute to this confusion becausethey have pointed out that chronic fatigue syndrome has at least 3 characteristics in common with burnout. These are:

– at the heart of both syndromes lies the issue of serious exhaustion or fatigue;
– people who suffer from these syndromes often share the same personality traits (active, hardworking, pas- sionate and dedicated);
– both syndromes are related to work overload.

Burnout also mimics chronic fatigue syndrome in that it is associated with poor health issues such as headaches, fa- tigue, sleep disturbances and exhaustion [11,12]. Another common factor between academics suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and burnout is that they struggle to be productive in creative ways [3,13].
As a result of these contradictory findings, it is necessary to determine whether chronic fatigue and burnout experienced by academics are the same syndrome or if they are 2 separate, distinguishable constructs.

 

Quite small study:

In the end, 69 participants (of 1433 personnel members) visited the URL and uploaded their responses to the questionnaires.

 

If you offer a questionnaire to 69 persons who work at an academic institution, none of them probably has CFS. The term should not have been used in this study. This is basically a study of fatigue and burn-out like symptoms in the workforce.

The references for previously claimed similarities between burnout and CFS are revealing: a study of chronic fatigue and an unpublished dissertation by the senior author...

 

This doesn't prove that the conditions are similar, it proves that the questionnaire lacks specificity. Which is something that patients frequently mention when filling out such questionnaires (and often ignored by researchers).

 

Yes. I don't think the CDC symptom inventory (Found here: https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/pdfs/symptom-inventory-questionnaire-508.pdf) has much to do with ME/CFS as it is currently defined.

It asks about all types of symptoms like fever, diarrhea, chills, sleeping problems nausea, sinus or nasal problems etc. Even what the paper describes as core symptoms aren't very specific: joint pain, headache, muscle pain, and tender lymph nodes are not seen as characteristic of ME/CFS. And instead of PEM, it asks about "fatigue after exertion." Anyone with health problems might say they have more fatigue after exertion...

 

Doesn't get much lazier than this. Nicoleen Coetzee, trying to think up an idea for a new paper, has a brilliant idea - "I know, I'll ask my colleagues to fill in a questionnaire or two, that way I won't even have to leave the building! If 5% of them respond, I can write something up and publish it!"

 

Letter to editor by @Michiel Tack , click on the PDF link to read it at http://ijomeh.eu/Letter-to-the-edit...nship-between-chronic-fatigue,105960,0,2.html

Response from authors at http://ijomeh.eu/Response-to-letter...onic-fatigue-syndrome-burnout,109205,0,2.html

 

Strange, I didn't really get a notification it was published, so you knew it before me.

I would like to thank @Andy and @Trish for helping me with proofreading and finetuning the letter. Very helpful and very much appreciated.

I'm glad that the authors (Coetzee et al.) turn out to be good sports and that they "appreciate the critical comments" and that these will "surely be taken into account in future research."