Comparison of burnout scales: Examination of the reliability and validity of the Japanese versions

Abstract

In this study, we introduce freely available burnout scales primarily used overseas and examine their reliability and validity. A Web survey was conducted with a total of 953 participants, consisting of 492 nurses and 461 certified care workers. The scales we examined were the Japanese Burnout Scale (JBS), Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI), Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measures (SMBM), Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT), and Matches Measure (MM). First, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the structural validity of each scale. The goodness of fit of the JBS and BAT was confirmed to be good, while the SMBM was moderate; the CBI and OBI were very low. The alpha coefficients of the subfactors were adequate for all the scales. Next, the relationship between the scale scores shows that while all burnout scales share fatigue as a core symptom of burnout, they measure different constructs of burnout from different perspectives. Researchers will need to use these measures differently depending on which symptoms of burnout they are focusing on.