Physician burnout assessed by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory - the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic: meta-analysis

The aim of our meta-analysis was to determine the global prevalence of burnout among physicians measured by the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). A meta-analysis performed following the PRISMA guidelines. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched for trials on the prevalence of physician’s burnout syndrome. A literature search (October–November 2025) was performed, and pooled prevalence was estimated using a random-effects model. Joanna’s Briggs Institute (JBI) quality assessment tool was used to evaluate the risk of bias. Cochrane I-squared test was used to evaluate the heterogeneity among studies. The meta-analysis was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics software (version 29.0.2.0.). Thirty-nine cross-sectional studies containing 17,963 physicians were finally included in the analysis. The global prevalence of burnout was 52% (95% CI: 46%–57%). Pre-pandemic studies from Europe yielded a pooled prevalence of 34% (95% CI: 23%–46%), compared with 47% (95% CI: 34%–61%) during the COVID-19 era. In Asia, the pooled prevalence increased from 55% (95% CI: 46%–64%) before the pandemic to 66% (95% CI: 57%–74%) during the pandemic. A large number of physicians were identified as having moderate–high burnout levels. The findings of this analysis highlight the need for policy measures aimed at enhancing the working environment of healthcare professionals and mitigating burnout. The protocol was registered on PROSPERO (CRD420251177705). Not applicable.