Despite an increased risk of death from specific causes, physicians still tend to live longer than those in other professions. A nationwide study published in year 2020 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers pulled data on nearly 4 million deaths between 1984 and 1995. White male physicians had an older mean age at death (73.0) than white male lawyers (72.3) and white males of other professions (70.9). This 2000 study shows physicians lived three years longer than the general population.
The top 10 causes of death for white male physicians in 1990 (heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, accidents, COPD, pneumonia/influenza, diabetes mellitus, suicide, liver disease, and HIV/AIDS) were essentially the same as those of the general population in the same year.
On the other hand, these doctors were significantly less likely to die from alcoholism, colorectal cancer, bacterial diseases, respiratory diseases (including lung cancer), digestive system diseases, acute myocardial infarction, and non-ischemic heart disease.
Altogether, the data suggest two possibilities: Either healthier people choose medicine as a career, or people who’ve received medical training make healthier choices.
Now, the bad news: Physicians are at higher odds of dying by suicide (OR 3.5), Accidental death (OR 1.25), and stroke (OR 1.09). Physicians are also likely to die from hepatitis, malignant melanoma, Alzheimer’s disease, and pancreatic cancer.
One UK study showed that Primary care physicians live longer than ER and Radiologists.
These are older data, and we do not know what happened after the COVID pandemic.