ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Intersection of Psychology, Healthy Behaviors, and its OutcomesView all 134 articles
Interconnected Associations of Occupational Burnout, Anxiety, and Sleep Quality in Oilfield Workers
Provisionally accepted
Ziwei Guo1
Xuefeng Yu1
Haobiao Liu1
Qingsong Li1Licheng Yang1Xining Wang1
Abebe Feyissa Amhare1Guoqiang Dong1
Jing Han2*- 1Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, China
- 2Global Health Institute, School of Medicine, Xian Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Occupational burnout and poor sleep quality are increasingly prevalent among oilfield workers, exposed to high-stress environments and irregular shifts. Emerging evidence indicates that anxiety may mediate the link between burnout and sleep disturbances, though empirical data in this group remain limited. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1,617 oilfield workers in Shaanxi Province, China. Sleep quality, anxiety, and occupational burnout were assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Symptom Checklist-90, and Maslach Burnout Inventory–General Survey (MBI-GS), respectively. Logistic regression, correlation analysis, restricted cubic spline models, and bootstrapped mediation analyses were used to evaluate associations and mediation effects. Results: Among participants, 52.75% experienced occupational burnout. In the total population, occupational burnout were significantly associated with sleep quality (OR = 1.611, 95% CI: 1.291 - 2.010, P < 0.001). Sex-stratified analyses yielded consistent findings, with females showing stronger associations (OR = 1.919, 95% CI: 1.244 - 2.959) compared with males (OR = 1.492, 95% CI: 1.144 - 1.946). Restricted cubic spline analysis revealed a nonlinear dose–response relationship between occupational burnout and the odds of sleep quality (P for nonlinear = 0.002). Mediation analysis showed that anxiety is consistent with a significant indirect association between occupational burnout and sleep quality, accounting for 33.08% of the total association. Conclusions: Occupational burnout and anxiety are key correlates for sleep quality among oilfield workers, with anxiety serving as a significant potential mechanism. Early identification and targeted interventions addressing both occupational burnout and psychological distress are important considerations for improving sleep quality and alleviating occupational health in high-risk work environments.
Keywords: Anxiety, Cross-sectional study, Occupational burnout, oilfield workers, sleep quality
Received: 11 Oct 2025; Accepted: 08 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Guo, Yu, Liu, Li, Yang, Wang, Amhare, Dong and Han. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jing Han
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.