Mesure de la mortalité des médecins au Québec à partir de données administratives
The goal of this research is to obtain an approximate measurement of the mortality of male physicians in the province of Quebec who are considered under this study. Physicians’ mortality rates were analyzed in terms of changes between the years 1993-1998, 1999-2004 and 2005-2010, as well as being compared with the mortality rates of Quebec men at large. In addition, the mortality rates of male general practitioners were compared to those of physicians practicing a medical specialty. The data used in the production of this paper is derived from an administrative file provided by the Collège des médecins du Québec, which contains information on a certain number of physicians who had previously obtained a permit to practice medicine in the province, irrespective of their status within the Collège at the time that the file was released. This data was not collected for statistical purposes and therefore, the file presents certain constraints that restrict our mortality analysis, in particular due to the absence of information regarding the population at risk of death in each of the periods studied here. That said, while we were conscious of the bias that could result from this, we have produced two estimates of these physicians' exposure to risk of death, in order to try to compensate for the file's limitations, in as much as possible. By using the first method of calculation, we have assessed mortality rates for quinquennial age groups of physicians between the ages of 40 and 75 that are currently part of the membership roll. Using the second method of calculation, we obtained mortality rates for physicians belonging to the same age groups, except that this time, registered physicians of all statuses were considered. We believe the mortality measurements for male physicians are acceptable as long as any analysis thereof doesn’t overlook the limitations of the data. The results obtained demonstrated a reduction in mortality among male physicians from one period to the next, but the differences were only significant for groups above the age of 60, especially upon comparing the periods of 1993-1998 and 2005-2010. In addition, during every period studied, mortality rates among the province's entire male population proved to be higher than the mortality rates among the registered male physicians present in the file; this result was obtained for both methods of calculation of the exposure to risk of death. Finally, this study did not demonstrate a significant difference between mortality among general practitioners and specialists.
Québec Collège des médecins du Québec mortality male physicians male population medical specialty mortality rates Quebec administrative file Collège des médecins du Québec