Doctors less likely to divorce, study suggests

Doctors are less likely than other professionals to get divorced, a new published study suggests.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School analysed census data relating to a variety of professions, including dentists, pharmacists, nurses, lawyers and physicians – data which was collected between 2008 and 2013.

The results showed that doctors were less likely to get divorced than the other professions surveyed. Just 22 per cent had seen their marriages end, compared to 28 per cent of lawyers.

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Doctors, both NHS and private GPs, were also, along with pharmacists, the least likely of all the featured professions to be have been married more than once.

However, when genders were examined, the researchers discovered that female doctors were more likely to divorce than male ones, and those who worked more than 40 hours per week were also more likely to have divorced than those who spent fewer hours at the surgery or hospital. This was in stark contrast to male doctors: those who worked 40 hours or more were the least likely to have been divorced.

Researcher Anupam B. Jena told the Huffington Post that female doctors may face greater social expectations than male ones.

“If you’re a female physician, not only do you have to deal with the stress and the long hours of work, but then you have the household and potentially childcare on top of that.”

The study was published in the BMJ (the British Medical Journal).