BURNOUT AND HEALTH-STATUS IN ITALIAN AIR-TRAFFIC-CONTROLLERS

This study investigated burnout in air traffic controllers (ATC's). Th ere were 109 Italian ATC's who filled out the pome Burnout Inventory, a new tool for burnout assessment, during breaks in the working enviro nment. The questionnaire assessed: 1) emotional-mental exhaustion (EME ); 2) physical exhaustion (PE); 3) social support by components of the social network; 4) work- and nonwork-related stressors; 5) self-repor ted psychosomatic and psychiatric disorders. Our data show that the bu rnout syndrome is closely and positively related to age, years spent i n air traffic control, professional dissatisfaction, and to work stres sors, but not to nonwork stressors. In our sample, burnout was negativ ely correlated with social support provided by friends and family. The PE construct seemed to be unreliable in detecting physical burnout in Italian ATC's. Using analysis of variance, subjects with self-reporte d psychosomatic disorders did not show higher levels of EME scores. Fu rther, EME wets positively correlated with self-perceived psychologica l distress (anxiety, depression and impulse discontrol), but not with physician-rated psychopathology, as revealed by psychoactive drug inta ke. We suggest that burnout is a construct independent from clinical a nxiety or depression.