Objective  To investigate the current situation and the relevant affecting factors of job burnout among underground coal mine workers in order to protect the physical and mental health of coal miners.

  Methods  A total of 950 underground workers in a coal mine in Xinjiang were investigated by cluster sampling. The effort-reward imbalance questionnaire (ERI) and Maslach burnout inventory (MBI) were used to investigate occupational stress and job burnout. A multiple linear regression model was used to analyze the related factors of job burnout.

  Results  Totally 887 valid questionnaires were collected, and the effective recovery rate was 93.4%. The main occupational hazard factors in the production process of the coal mine were coal dust, silica dust, toxic and harmful gases, noise, hand-transmitted vibration, heat stress, power frequency electric fields, ultraviolet radiation, and so on. Among the 887 subjects, 860 were men; 764 (86.13%) had high occupational stress, while 839 (94.59%) had job burnout, including 388 (43.74%) with mild, 392 (44.19%) with moderate, and 59 (6.65%) with high burnout. The results of multivariate regression analysis showed that the total scores of job burnout for the workers with work time of 15-30 years or more than 30 years were increased by 2.259 and 5.642 points, respectively, compared with the workers with work time less than 15 years (P < 0.05). The total score of job burnout increased by 3.080 points among shift workers compared to fixed day shift workers (P < 0.05) and increased by 3.106 points among workers in the ERI > 1 group compared with workers in the ERI ≤ 1 group (P < 0.05).

  Conclusions  The situation of occupational stress and job burnout among underground coal mine workers was severe. Managers in the coal mining industry should regularly monitor the occupational psychological status of these workers and take positive measures to reduce the occurrence of occupational stress and job burnout and, finally, to protect their health.