Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric evaluation of the Malayalam version of the Oldenburg burnout inventory among secondary school teachers

Background: The Oldenburg burnout inventory (OLBI) is a widely used instrument for measuring burnout. It consists of 16 items grouped into two dimensions: exhaustion and disengagement. This study aimed to translate and validate the English version of the OLBI into Malayalam among secondary school teachers in Kerala. Methods: After obtaining permission from the author, we translated the OLBI into Malayalam and validated it following standard guidelines, including forward translation, back translation, and content validation with cultural adaptation. Test-retest reliability was assessed among 40 teachers using SPSS version 28. The internal consistency, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed in STATA/SE 17.0 software, using data from 255 teachers. Results: The OLBI-Malayalam version retained 16 items, all of which demonstrated excellent item-content validity indices (0.83-1.00) and a scale-content validity index of 0.97. The scale demonstrated good internal consistency, with Cronbach’s α values of 0.84 for the total scale, 0.80 for exhaustion, and 0.61 for disengagement. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) suggested a one-factor model that explained 31.2% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated no significant difference between the one-factor and two-factor models, with moderately acceptable fit indices. Conclusions: The translated version of the OLBI offers a validated and culturally adapted tool for assessing burnout among Malayalam-speaking populations. The tool demonstrated a near-stable one-factor structure over the originally conceptualized two-factor model. It holds potential for use in other occupational groups, though further validation is recommended to account for differing job demands and work environments.