SUICIDE MORTALITY AMONG MEDICAL DOCTORS IN FINLAND - ARE FEMALES MOREPRONE TO SUICIDE THAN THEIR MALE COLLEAGUES

Background. Suicide mortality among medical practitioners is in many c ountries significantly higher compared with other professionals and th e general population. Differences between male and female physicians a re difficult to estimate reliably because previous comparisons are mai nly based on crude mortality rates. Methods. Age-specific mortality ra tes were calculated for physicians, other professionals and the genera l population, males and females separately, as well as standardized mo rtality ratios (SMR) comparing physicians with the other groups. Crude mortality rates were calculated for the specialist groups. Results. T he SMR for male (female) physicians was 0.9 (2.4) compared with the ge neral male (female) population and 2.4 (3.7) compared with other male (female) professionals. The SMR between male and female physicians was 1.2 (95% CI 0.9-1.7). Conclusions. Our results do not support the cla im that female physicians have a greater risk of suicide than their ma le colleagues, but are concordant with previous observations of a high er suicide rate in female physicians compared with the general populat ion and other female professionals.