Mortality and causes of death among Danish medical doctors 1973-1992.

BACKGROUND To examine the mortality pattern of Danish doctors for the period 1973-1992. METHODS A historical prospective cohort study based on the membership register of the Danish Medical Association. The study population consisted of 21,943 medical doctors, 6012 of whom were women. The doctors' cause-specific mortality was compared with that of the general population. RESULTS The study covered about 277,000 person-years. A total of 2387 deaths occurred from 1 January 1973 to 31 December 1992. The doctors' mortality was lower than that of the general population. Both sexes showed a standardized mortality ratio (SMR) below one for cancer, circulatory diseases and other natural causes. Mortality due to lung cancer was particularly low. The SMR for suicide was significantly increased, 1.6 for males (95% CI: 1.4-1.9) and 1.7 for females (95% CI: 1.1-2.5). The suicide rate was increased, in particular because of an increased number of suicides by poisoning. In addition female doctors displayed a relatively high mortality due to accidents and other types of violent death. CONCLUSIONS Compared with the general population the doctors' mortality was low, but the mortality from external causes was increased, mainly due to an excess number of suicides.

[1]  A. Swerdlow,et al.  Mortality of doctors in different specialties: findings from a cohort of 20000 NHS hospital consultants. , 1997, Occupational and environmental medicine.

[2]  J. Lönnqvist,et al.  A Systematic Review on Gender-Specific Suicide Mortality in Medical Doctors , 1996, British Journal of Psychiatry.

[3]  C. Burnett,et al.  Suicide and Occupation: A Review of the Literature , 1995, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[4]  P. E. Nielsen,et al.  [Smoking habits among Danish physicians, nurses and midwives in 1989]. , 1990, Ugeskrift for laeger.

[5]  M. Nordentoft.  [Suicide among physicians]. , 1988, Ugeskrift for laeger.

[6]  B. Arnetz,et al.  Suicide patterns among physicians related to other academics as well as to the general population , 1987, Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica.

[7]  A. Rimpelä,et al.  MORTALITY OF DOCTORS: DO DOCTORS BENEFIT FROM THEIR MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE? , 1987, The Lancet.

[8]  J. Borgan,et al.  [Mortality by occupation and socioeconomic group 1970-1980] , 1986 .

[9]  J. Fleiss,et al.  Cancer in Connecticut physicians and lawyers: a study by birth cohorts (1875-1939). , 1985, Connecticut medicine.

[10]  D. Oakes,et al.  Mortality study of British pathologists 1974-80. , 1984, British journal of industrial medicine.

[11]  G Berry,et al.  The analysis of mortality by the subject-years method. , 1983, Biometrics.

[12]  B. Jeune.  Dødelighed blandt erhvervsaktive læger i Danmark i 1971-1975 , 1980 .

[13]  B. Jeune.  [Mortality among practicing physicians in Denmark 1971-1975]. , 1980, Ugeskrift for laeger.

[14]  Y. Collan,et al.  Mortality among Finnish Doctors, 1953–1972 , 1979, Scandinavian journal of social medicine.

[15]  R. Doll,et al.  Mortality among doctors in different occupations. , 1977 .

[16]  Haitung King,et al.  Health in the medical and other learned professions. , 1970, Journal of chronic diseases.

[17]  John C. Bailar,et al.  202. Note: Significance Factors for the Ratio of a Poisson Variable to Its Expectation , 1964 .