A comprehensive analysis of U.S. death records for individuals aged 25 to 74 years revealed stark mortality disparities among physicians across sex, race, and ethnicity lines, with Black female physicians experiencing the highest mortality rates—even exceeding the mortality rates of White women in the general non–health care population.
In the cross-sectional study, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, investigators analyzed 3.6 million death records from January 2020 to December 2022, including 10,189 physician deaths and 305,871 other health care worker deaths. While physicians overall demonstrated lower age-adjusted and sex-adjusted annual mortality rates (269.3 deaths per 100,000 population) compared with high-income non–health care workers (499.2) and the general population (730.6), this advantage did not extend uniformly across demographic groups.
Health care support workers experienced the highest mortality rates among all health care occupations (909.6 deaths per 100,000 population), while disparities were particularly pronounced among physicians. Black female physicians had a higher mortality rate (616.1 deaths per 100,000 population; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 550.6–687.7) compared with White female individuals in the general population of non-health care workers (537.4 per 100,000; 95% CI = 536.1–538.7).
The study documented that Black physicians faced the highest mortality ratio compared with White physicians (2.13; 95% CI, =1.99–2.29), a disparity exceeding those seen in other professions, including lawyers, engineers, and scientists (1.74; 95% CI = 1.69–1.78). While Asian individuals consistently showed lower mortality rates across all occupational groups, Hispanic physicians faced elevated mortality compared with their White colleagues (Hispanic to White mortality rate ratio [MRR] = 1.18, 95% CI = 1.09–1.27), a pattern that notably diverged from trends in the general workforce where Hispanic workers typically demonstrated lower mortality rates compared with White workers.
Female physicians demonstrated higher mortality rates compared with their male counterparts for specific conditions, notably neoplasms (female to male MRR = 1.45, 95% CI = 1.36–1.54) and chronic lower respiratory diseases (MRR = 2.75, 95% CI = 1.67–3.84). This pattern contrasted sharply with high-income non–health care workers, where women showed lower mortality rates for these same conditions.
"The results of this cross-sectional study suggest that although physicians and most health care workers experienced lower mortality rates compared with the general population, this benefit did not fully extend to female individuals or racial and ethnic minority groups," the study authors underscored. "Renewed efforts are needed to address health inequities within the health care workforce," they added.
The study, led by researchers from Harvard Medical School, utilized death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System, covering approximately 98% of the U.S. population from 2020 to 2022. The research team age-adjusted and sex-adjusted mortality rates to the 2000 U.S. standard population using direct standardization with 10-year age groups.
Full disclosures can be found in the study.
