The "medicine in Australia: balancing employment and life (MABEL)" longitudinal survey--protocol and baseline data for a prospective cohort study of Australian doctors' workforce participation
- PMID: 20181288
- PMCID: PMC2837653
- DOI: 10.1186/1472-6963-10-50
The "medicine in Australia: balancing employment and life (MABEL)" longitudinal survey--protocol and baseline data for a prospective cohort study of Australian doctors' workforce participation
Abstract
Background: While there is considerable research on medical workforce supply trends, there is little research examining the determinants of labour supply decisions for the medical workforce. The "Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL)" study investigates workforce participation patterns and their determinants using a longitudinal survey of Australian doctors. It aims to generate evidence to support developing effective policy responses to workforce issues such as shortages and maldistribution. This paper describes the study protocol and baseline cohort, including an analysis of response rates and response bias.
Methods/design: MABEL is a prospective cohort study. All Australian doctors undertaking clinical work in 2008 (n = 54,750) were invited to participate, and annual waves of data collections will be undertaken until at least 2011. Data are collected by paper or optional online version of a questionnaire, with content tailored to four sub-groups of clinicians: general practitioners, specialists, specialists in training, and hospital non-specialists. In the baseline wave, data were collected on: job satisfaction, attitudes to work and intentions to quit or change hours worked; a discrete choice experiment examining preferences and trade-offs for different types of jobs; work setting; workload; finances; geographic location; demographics; and family circumstances.
Discussion: The baseline cohort includes 10,498 Australian doctors, representing an overall response rate of 19.36%. This includes 3,906 general practitioners, 4,596 specialists, 1,072 specialists in training, and 924 hospital non-specialists. Respondents were more likely to be younger, female, and to come from non-metropolitan areas, the latter partly reflecting the effect of a financial incentive on response for doctors in remote and rural areas. Specialists and specialists in training were more likely to respond, whilst hospital non-specialists were less likely to respond. The distribution of hours worked was similar between respondents and data from national medical labour force statistics. The MABEL survey provides a large, representative cohort of Australian doctors. It enables investigation of the determinants of doctors' decisions about how much, where and in what circumstances they practice, and of changes in these over time. MABEL is intended to provide an important resource for policy makers and other stakeholders in the Australian medical workforce.
Figures
Similar articles
-
Australian doctors' satisfaction with their work: results from the MABEL longitudinal survey of doctors.Med J Aust. 2011 Jan 3;194(1):30-3. doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2011.tb04142.x. Med J Aust. 2011. PMID: 21449865
-
Building a sustainable rural physician workforce.Med J Aust. 2021 Jul;215 Suppl 1:S5-S33. doi: 10.5694/mja2.51122. Med J Aust. 2021. PMID: 34218436
-
Australian doctors' non-clinical activities: results from the Medicine in Australia: Balancing Employment and Life (MABEL) survey of doctors.Aust Health Rev. 2015 Nov;39(5):588-594. doi: 10.1071/AH14223. Aust Health Rev. 2015. PMID: 25913632
-
Reviewing reliance on overseas-trained doctors in rural Australia and planning for self-sufficiency: applying 10 years' MABEL evidence.Hum Resour Health. 2019 Jan 22;17(1):8. doi: 10.1186/s12960-018-0339-z. Hum Resour Health. 2019. PMID: 30670027 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Longitudinal tracking of healthcare professionals: a methodological scoping review.BMC Med Res Methodol. 2025 Apr 1;25(1):83. doi: 10.1186/s12874-025-02533-1. BMC Med Res Methodol. 2025. PMID: 40169968 Free PMC article.
Cited by
-
Financial characteristics and security of podiatry work in Victoria: the PAIGE cross sectional study of Australian podiatrists.J Foot Ankle Res. 2023 Sep 16;16(1):61. doi: 10.1186/s13047-023-00657-5. J Foot Ankle Res. 2023. PMID: 37715274 Free PMC article.
-
Nature of association between rural background and practice location: a comparison of general practitioners and specialists.BMC Health Serv Res. 2011 Mar 23;11:63. doi: 10.1186/1472-6963-11-63. BMC Health Serv Res. 2011. PMID: 21429224 Free PMC article.
-
Burnout in podiatrists associated with individual characteristics, workplace and job satisfaction: A national survey.J Foot Ankle Res. 2024 Jun;17(2):e12003. doi: 10.1002/jfa2.12003. J Foot Ankle Res. 2024. PMID: 38567752 Free PMC article.
-
Reasons why specialist doctors undertake rural outreach services: an Australian cross-sectional study.Hum Resour Health. 2017 Jan 7;15(1):3. doi: 10.1186/s12960-016-0174-z. Hum Resour Health. 2017. PMID: 28061894 Free PMC article.
-
Internists' career choice towards primary care: a cross-sectional survey.BMC Fam Pract. 2017 Apr 5;18(1):52. doi: 10.1186/s12875-017-0624-2. BMC Fam Pract. 2017. PMID: 28381243 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Productivity Commission. Australia's health workforce. Research report. Canberra: Productivity Commission; 2005.
-
- World Health Organization. The World Health Report 2006: Working together for health. Geneva: WHO; 2006. - PubMed
-
- Joyce CM, McNeil JJ, Stoelwinder JUS. More doctors, but not enough: Australian medical workforce supply 2001-2012. Medical Journal of Australia. 2006;184:441–446. - PubMed
-
- Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. Report on the audit of health workforce in rural and regional Australia. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia; 2008.
Publication types
MeSH terms
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources