Women outlive men - but not in medicine

Molly McDonough, associate editor of Harvard Medicine, wrote an excellent article. In the article, Anupan Jena, Professor of Health Care Policy in the Blavatnick Institure at HMS and HMS professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses his finding from a recent study. He found that while females in non-healthcare related professions were 45% less likely to die than their male counterparts, female physicians did not enjoy the same advantage over their male counterparts. "Another way to put it is that even though women live longer in medicine that women in law, science, or engineering, they don't live as long as you would've expected given what we observe between women and men in the rest of society," said Dr. Jena.

The findings were even more stark for black female physicians. This group experienced higher mortality rates than all other physician subgroups. Black female physicians were 128% more likely to die during the study period than their white female counterparts. Dr. Jena further commented that, "[I]f you're a woman in medicine, you work long hours in the hospital, you train for many years, and then when you're practicing, it can be very busy and stressful. On top of that, you have additional work that has to be done when you get home, the type of work that is disproportionally borne by women - and that could be challenging for health."

For the full article, click here.