Læknablaðið - 15.02.1998, Qupperneq 19

LÆKNABLAÐIÐ 1998; 84
107
Dánarmein og krabbamein lækna
og lögfræðinga
Vilhjálmur Rafnsson121, Hólmfríöur K. Gunnarsdóttir21
Rafnsson V, Gunnarsdóttir HK
Mortality and cancer incidence ainong physicians
and lawyers
Læknablaðið 1998; 84: 107-15
Objective: To study whether mortality and cancer
incidence among male physicians were lower than
those among men of the general population and
lawyers.
Material and methods: The study is a retrospective
cohort study, the cohort comprised all male physici-
ans (1210) educated until 1993 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 (SMRs) and the
standardised incidence ratios (SIRs) were compared
between the groups. A special survey of the smoking
habits of physicians and lawyers was conducted on
the data from the Heart Association, Hjartavernd,
and the possible confounding on lung cancer inci-
dence by smoking was estimated.
Results: Overall mortality among the lawyers was
similar to that of the general male population, how-
ever, mortality among the physicians was lower than
Frá "Rannsóknastofu í heilbrigðisfræði Háskóla íslands,
Sóltúni 1, 105 Reykjavík, !)atvinnusjúkdómadeild Vinnu-
eftirlits ríkisins, Bíldshöfða 16, 112 Reykjavík. Fyrirspurn-
ir, bréfaskipti: Vilhjálmur Rafnsson, atvinnusjúkdómadeild
Vinnueftirlits ríkisins, Bíldshöfða 16, 112 Reykjavík.
Lykilorð: dánarmein, nýgengi krabbameina, iæknar, lög-
fræðingar, sjálfsmorð, lungnakrabbamein, ristilkrabba-
mein, reykingar.
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 morta-
lity for suicide committed by drugs, solid or liquid
substances, SMR 5.75. Cancer was not as frequent
among the physicians as among the lawyers, part-
icularly 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.
Conclusions: Lower mortality among the physicians
indicates a healthy lifestyle and they smoked 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 others which could not solely
be explained by fewer smokers among the physici-
ans.
Key words: mortality, cancer incidence, physicians,
lawyers, suicide, lung cancer, colon cancer, smoking
habits.
Ágrip
Tilgangur: Að kanna hvort dánartíðni og
nýgengi krabbameina eru lægri meðal karla í
læknastétt en annarra karla og karlkynlögfræð-
inga.
Efniviður og aðferðir: Rannsóknin var aft-
urskyggn hóprannsókn sem náði til allra karla
meðal íslenskra lækna (1210) sem útskrifuðust
fram til ársins 1993 og bjuggu hér á landi árið
1951 eða síðar. Til samanburðar voru lögfræð-
ingar (1032) sem skilgreindir voru á sama hátt.