Location, vocation, procreation: how choice influences life expectancy in doctors.

Abstract

Stress and mortality are negatively correlated and it is generally accepted that certain professions are more stressful than others. Medical graduates begin as a relatively homogenous population who then choose vastly different career options making doctors an ideal population in which to try to assess whether job stress is likely to be causal to increased mortality. To establish the influence of various modifiable risk factors on the life expectancy of UK doctors. We analysed a decade of obituaries from the British Medical Journal published between January 2003 and December 2012. Data included age at death (AAD), specialty, region (deanery), marriage status and children. A total of 3068 obituaries were eligible for inclusion. Mean AAD was 78.5 years. Male sex was associated with a significantly increased AAD by an additional 3.8 years (95% CI 2.4-5.2 years, P < 0.001). Public health, obstetrics and gynaecology and laboratory medicine specialties were all associated with significantly increased AAD (P < 0.05). London and Northern Ireland deaneries were both associated with significantly increased AAD (P < 0.05). Each additional child was associated with a relative increase in AAD of +1.1 years (95% CI 0.7-1.4 years, P < 0.001). Our results show that location and career choices may affect life expectancy. While this does not necessarily reflect quality of life, the additional years of life gained from having extra children have a positive effect on your quantity of life.