Copenhagen Burnout inventory (CBI)

The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) has been developed to measure burnout in different areas. It is a valid and reliable instrument consisting of 19 simple questions. The CBI contains three parts, each focusing on a different area of burnout: personal burnout, work burnout and client-related burnout. In the CBI, the core of burnout is fatigue and exhaustion. Personal burnout is operationalized in terms of feelings of physical, emotional, and mental fatigue and exhaustion, while work-related burnout refers to symptoms that respondents attribute to their specific work activity. Client-related burnout instead sketches burnout symptoms selectively referring to respondents' feelings towards their target clients.

Length of completion

The entire questionnaire takes about 5 minutes to complete.

Individualized feedback for the respondent

By evaluating the questionnaire, the respondent will know if they are at risk of burnout personally, work related, client related or none.

Keywords

CBI, burnout, burnout syndrome, exhaustion, personal burnout, work burnout, client-related burnout

Scoring and interpretation

For each CBI subscale, the total score is calculated as the average of the scores obtained for each item. The average score ranges from 0-100, with higher scores indicating higher levels of burnout. Throughout the questionnaire, one reverse item is located in the work burnout subscale: ‘Do you have enough energy for family and friends in your spare time?’ The order of the questions is not fixed and should be alternated.

Response Scale

Respondents answer CBI items on a five-point scale, anchored verbally in the questionnaire in two ways depending on the type of item, so that the response makes sense (scored in the same way). First type: ‘Always’ (100), ‘Often’ (75), ‘Sometimes’ (50), ‘Rarely’ (25) and ‘Never/almost never’ (0). Second type: ‘To a very high degree’ (100), ‘To a high degree’ (75), ‘Partly’ (50), ‘To a low degree’ (25) and ‘To a very low degree’ (0). Can also be scored as 4 to 0.

References

Borritz, M., Rugulies, R., Bjorner, J., Villadsen, E., Mikkelsen, O., & Kristensen, T. (2006). Burnout among employees in human service work: design and baseline findings of the PUMA study. Candinavian Journal of Public Health, 34(1), 49-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/14034940510032275

Copenhagen Burnout Inventory - CBI. (2023). Det Nationale Forskningscenter for Arbejdsmiljø. Retrieved March 6, 2023, from https://nfa.dk/da/Vaerktoejer/Sporgeskemaer/Sporgeskema-til-maaling-af-udbraendthed/Copenhagen-Burnout-Inventory-CBI

Kristensen, T., Borritz, M., Villadsen, E., & Christensen, K. (2005). The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work & Stress, 19(3), 192-207. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500297720