Female physicians’ health in Hungary. A longitudinal perspective

Abstract

Introduction: There is a worldwide rising tendency of women who decide to become physician. One of the most remarkable fields of investigation is the well-being of female doctors. Aim: To study the prevalence of somatic and reproductive morbidity in a representative sample of Hungarian female physicians and compare it with a control group of graduated women. Method: Data for this epidemiological study were collected from 2515 female physicians in 2013. Graduated women from a representative survey (Hungarostudy 2013) served as controls. The results were compared to the previous (2003–2004) representative female physicians’ survey. Results: We found that the prevalence of chronic somatic morbidity among female physicians was significantly higher than that in the respective control groups. A larger proportion of female medical doctors were characterized by time-to-pregnancy interval longer than one year, and undergoing infertility therapy and miscarriages, compared to the control female population, while the same prevalence of terminations of pregnancy was found. Conclusions: The longitudinal perspective confirmed the existence of the “Hungarian female physicians’ paradox”. Orv. Hetil., 2014, 155(25), 993–999.