Debt, Long Work Hours Tied to Burnout in Family Physicians

Medscape October 8, 2025
Edited by Manasi Talwadekar

TOPLINE:

Educational debt of over $250,000 was associated with increased burnout symptoms in early-career family physicians. Higher debt correlated with long work hours, which was independently linked to increased symptoms of burnout.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers examined the correlation among educational debt, work hours, and burnout symptoms in 4905 early-career family physicians (83.2% of participants younger than 38 years; 57.8% women) in the US.
• Data were collected from two surveys conducted by the American Board of Family Medicine: The Initial Certification Questionnaire (2017-2020), which inquired about educational debt, and the National Graduate Survey (2020-2023), which inquired about practice organization, hours worked, satisfaction, burnout symptoms, and other activities.
• Participants were categorized by levels of educational debt at residency graduation: none; less than...

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