Despite the long hours and demands of the profession, physicians are more likely to keep the knot tied than other healthcare and non-healthcare professionals, according to a study in published Wednesday in The BMJ. However, the work-life balance is not evenly distributed across genders: Female physicians are much more likely to be divorced than males.
The study is based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey from 2008 to 2013, including responses from more than 48,000 physicians, 200,000 other healthcare professionals and six million other professionals.
Here are the key findings on physician divorce rates.
- 24 percent of physicians have been divorced.
- 25 percent of dentists have been divorced.
- 31 percent of healthcare executives have been divorced.
- 33 percent of nurses have been divorced.
- 23 percent of pharmacists have been divorced.
- 27 percent of lawyers have been divorced.
- 35 percent of non-healthcare professionals have been divorced.
- Female physicians are 1.5 times more likely to have been divorced than male physicians.
- The likelihood female physicians have been divorced increases with the number of hours they work over 40 hours each week.
- Conversely, the likelihood male physicians have been divorced decreases with the number of hours they work over 40 hours each week.
- Divorce rates for physicians were not consistently associated with annual income.
"We believe that the higher incidence of divorce among female physicians stems from the greater tradeoffs they are forced to make to achieve work-life balance," lead study author Dan P. Ly, MD, a medical resident at Boston-based Massachusetts General Hospital, said in a statement. "More research is needed to understand whether that interpretation is indeed accurate, and if it is, what can be done to help with work/life balance."
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