By Aine Cryts
Physicians are less likely to die in hospitals or receive intense end-of life care compared with the general population, according to two studies recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
Only 28 percent of physicians are likely to die in a hospital, compared with 32 percent of the general population, according to the study led by Joel S. Weissman, Ph.D., deputy director and chief scientific officer of the Center for Surgery and Public Health at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. Researchers studied data on non-HMO Medicare beneficiaries age 66 or older on five validated measures of end-of-life care during the last six months of life; those measures included surgery, hospice care, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, death in the hospital and expenditures.
"The possible reasons physicians received less intense end-of-life care than others could be knowledge of its burdens and futility as well as the benefits and the financial resources to pay for other treatment options, such as palliative care or skilled nursing required for death at home," the authors wrote.
Additional study findings include:
- Physicians were less likely (25 percent compared with 27 percent) to have surgery than the general population
- Compared with the general population (28 percent), physicians were less likely (26 percent) to be admitted to the ICU
- Physicians were less likely (28 percent) to die in a hospital compared with lawyers (33 percent); that was the only measure where physicians differed significantly from lawyers, who were studied because they share socioeconomic status to physicians
A second study published in the journal seems to confirm that physicians are the least likely professional group to die in a hospital. At 38 percent, physicians were slightly less likely to die in a hospital than the general population, who die in hospitals at a rate of 40 percent.
That study, led by Saul Blecker, M.D., assistant professor of population health and medicine at New York University School of Medicine, tapped data from the National Longitudinal Mortality Study. Researchers studied the 471,243 deceased by their self-reported occupation and assessed whether the person died in an inpatient hospital or another healthcare facility, such as a skilled nursing home or a physician office.
According to researchers, physicians were as likely to die in a hospital as other healthcare professionals or with similar years of education. Still, at 63 percent (compared to 72 percent of the general population), physicians were the least likely group to die at any healthcare facility. There may be a small association between familiarity with healthcare and years of education, noted the authors.
To learn more:
- read the first study abstract
- check out the second study abstract