Life span of Japanese male medical doctors

Abstract

There have been few reports with regard to the life spans of medical doctors. The status of the medical doctors graduating from 1926 to 1974, alive or dead as of October 1996, was ascertained on the basis of the list of graduates from the School of Medicine, Hokkaido University. Excluding data on female doctors and those who died in battle during World War II, data on a total of 3,982 doctors were available for study. Their mortality as of October 1996 decreased in parallel with the graduation year. Their mean future life span at graduation was estimated to be about 52.88 years (95% CI, 52.45-53.31) through linear regression (r = 0.992). Their mean age at graduation was 25.17 years. This was not different from the future life expectancy at 25 years of age of the general population (52.35 years). The future life span of surgeons and gynecologists-obstetricians was shorter than that of the doctors of basic medical sciences and internal medicine. This difference might be accounted for by factors peculiar to each speciality (e.g., exposure to blood) or by the degree of stress from work.