Risk factors for burnout among couriers: A systematic review of the Chinese and English language literatures

Objectives: Courier jobs are characterised as high demand, low control with lack of support, meaning that job burnout is a serious concern. Burnout could have negative influences on safety, performance, turnover and work engagement. This paper aims to review existing evidence about the level of and risk factors for burnout among couriers. Design: Systematic review and narrative synthesis Primary and secondary outcome measures: Burnout, risk factors The review followed PRISMA to search studies published in English and Chinese. English databases included MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, Web of Science (Core Collection), Open Science Framework and Google Scholar. Chinese databases included CNKI, WANFANG data, Sino Med and CQVIP. Results: The search yielded nine papers, of which eight studied Chinese couriers and one Malaysian. Two of them were published in English language and seven were published in Chinese. Seven studies reported moderate to high levels of burnout, such as mean scores of 2.45 on a 1-5 scale, 4.02 on a 0-7 scale, and 49 where the total score is between 15 and 75. The included studies demonstrated that burnout is associated with low income, work stress, physical demands, emotional demands and organizational constraints. Some of them also measured factors that ameliorate the negative effect of work stress on burnout, such as job resources, decision latitude, social support and organizational support. Individual psychological processes, such as emotional regulation and psychological empowerment also play a role in ameliorating or exacerbating burnout. Level of burnout also varies significantly among different socio-demographic groups, such as age, income and marital status. Conclusions: Job burnout is moderate to high among couriers, but there is a dearth of literature in the English language. Interventions to prevent or reduce burnout are currently lacking but could include increasing job autonomy and offering more organizational support. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42021247644