Midlife women’s stress and burnout: associations with health-related quality of life, physical activity, and physical function

Objective: Midlife women are subject to stress and burnout, which are associated with decreases in physical function and activity. However, the associations between stress, burnout, and factors including health-related quality of life, physical function, and physical activity have not been assessed concurrently. These studies assess these associations to address critical questions about how stress and burnout independently are associated with key outcomes that impact midlife women’s experiences of aging. Methods: Two studies assessed stress, burnout, quality of life, physical function, and activity in two samples of midlife women (ages 40-65). The first study is from an online data collection assessing health-related quality of life. The second study assessed self-report data on health-related quality of life as well as objective functional assessments and actigraph data to assess physical activity. Results: Study 1 indicated that self-reported stress and burnout accounted for significant variance in physical and mental quality of life (β range from 0.14 to 0.63 for P <0.05 associations). Study 2 indicated that burnout, but not stress, was negatively associated with steps per day (β=−0.38, P =0.008) and moderate to vigorous physical activity per day (β=−0.31, P =0.030). Post hoc analyses revealed an indirect effect of burnout on physical function outcomes via average steps per day (effects ranged from −0.13 to 0.15). Conclusion: Psychological and functional aspects of quality of life are associated with increased stress and burnout. Results indicated that higher burnout has a direct association with decreased physical activity levels and an indirect effect on physical function. Distinguishing between stress and burnout and understanding the pattern of association with key indicators of physical function activity, as well as health-related quality of life, provides information that can help prevent functional decline.