[Mortality and cancer incidence among physicians and lawyers.]

To study whether mortality and cancer incidence among male physicians were lower than those among men of the general population and lawyers.

The study is a retrospective cohort study, the cohort comprised all male physicians (1210) educated until 1933 who lived in Iceland 1951 or later. All male lawyers (1032) defined in the same way were taken as a comparison group. The follow-up was through mortality and cancer registry by record linkage and the rates compared to those of the general population with indirect standardisation. The standardised mortality ratios (SMSs) and the standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) were compared between the groups. A special survey of the smoking habits of phycisians and lawyers was conducted on the data form the Heart Association, Hjartavernd, and the possible confounding on lung cancer incidence by smoking was estimated.

Overall mortality among the lawyers was similar to that of the general male population, however, mortality among the physicians was lower than that of the general population and the lawyers, due to lower mortality for all cancers, stomach cancer, lung cancer, cerebrovascular diseases and respiratory diseases, the SMRs were: 0.73, 0.27, 0.44, 0.53 and 0.54 respectively. The physicians had higher mortality for suicide commited by drugs, solid or liquid substances, SMR 5.75. Cancer was not as frequent among the physicians as among lawyers, particularly for lung cancer, the SIR was 0.45. There were higher rates for cancer of the colon and brain among the physicians than among others, however the difference was only of a statistical significant for the colon cancer, SIR 1.93. Smoking was not as common among the physicians as among a sample of the population or the lawyers.

Lower mortality among the physicians indicates a healthy lifestyle and they smoke less than the others. This could also mean that the physicians benefit from their education, they may soon get the right treatment if they fall ill. Cancers, particularly lung cancer were more rare among the physicians than among the others which could not solely be explained by fewer smokers among the physicians.