Research articleMortality rates and causes among U.S. physicians1
Introduction
Although anecdotal evidence and conjecture abound regarding physician mortality and some causes of death, such as suicide, have been extensively explored, little is actually known about U.S. physicians’ age at death or causes of death. Most prior work1, 2, 3 has used small or unrepresentative samples or databases, compared only mortality difference among medical specialties, been applicable only to white male physicians, concentrated on specific causes of death, or has not removed the confounding of socioeconomic status or the healthy worker effect. In addition, little reliable recent comprehensive information has been published.
Physician mortality is of interest for several reasons. First, physicians’ personal health habits may affect their patient counseling practices, and mortality reflects personal health choices.4 Second, given that mortality rates may reflect lifestyle choices, it would be valuable for patients and others to know whether physicians’ average age of death suggest that they have made healthful lifestyle choices. Finally, physicians’ large amount of health-related education and high socioeconomic strata (as judged by education, income, and occupational level) should lead to lower relative mortality.5
Section snippets
Methods
We took data for this study from the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database.6 This database is supported through the collaborative efforts of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the National Cancer Institute, the National Center for Health Statistics, and state health departments; it also contains information from death certificates from selected states. The death certificate records the usual industry and occupation of the decedent as reported by
Results
Table 1 shows mean ages at death for white and black adult men from selected states between 1984 and 1995. Among both white and black men, physicians were older when they died when compared with others in the population, with all examined professionals, and specifically when compared with lawyers. Despite the recent burgeoning of women in medicine, data for women are not presented because the relatively few older women in the physician population falsely skew downward the mean age at physician
Discussion
This is the first national study to examine age at death and causes of death for U.S. physicians. For both white and black male physicians, the average age at death was older than for other same-race professionals and nonprofessionals in the U.S. population. Because the number of (still primarily male) physicians has increased dramatically in recent years (nearly doubling, for example, between 1970 and 1990),13 this finding is especially impressive. Such a trend makes available a relatively
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