Table 1.
Responses to the question ‘What were the circumstances of your retirement?’: retired and ‘retired and returned’ doctors from the 1974 and 1977 cohorts
| Respondents | I retired when I had planned to retire | It was unplanned and due to a change in the work environment | It was unplanned and due to changes in personal circumstances | Other | Total (100%) | ||||
| % | n | % | n | % | n | % | n | N | |
| All | 66.8 | 1608 | 14.0 | 336 | 13.7 | 329 | 5.5 | 133 | 2406 |
| Retirement status | |||||||||
| Retired | 65.4 | 1009 | 13.6 | 209 | 16.3 | 251 | 4.7 | 73 | 1542 |
| Retired and returned | 69.3 | 599 | 14.7 | 127 | 9.0 | 78 | 6.9 | 60 | 864 |
| Cohort | |||||||||
| 1974 graduates | 69.3 | 762 | 13.0 | 143 | 11.9 | 131 | 5.7 | 63 | 1099 |
| 1977 graduates | 64.7 | 846 | 14.8 | 193 | 15.1 | 198 | 5.4 | 70 | 1307 |
| Gender | |||||||||
| Men | 68.4 | 1091 | 13.1 | 209 | 12.7 | 203 | 5.7 | 91 | 1594 |
| Women | 63.7 | 517 | 15.6 | 127 | 15.5 | 126 | 5.2 | 42 | 812 |
| Specialty group | |||||||||
| Hospital medical specialties | 62.4 | 141 | 13.3 | 30 | 14.6 | 33 | 9.7 | 22 | 226 |
| Surgery | 71.3 | 139 | 13.8 | 27 | 12.3 | 24 | 2.6 | 5 | 195 |
| General practice | 67.1 | 809 | 13.4 | 162 | 15.2 | 183 | 4.3 | 52 | 1206 |
| Paediatrics | 66.1 | 72 | 12.8 | 14 | 13.8 | 15 | 7.3 | 8 | 109 |
| Emergency medicine | 77.8 | 14 | 0.0 | 0 | 22.2 | 4 | 0.0 | 0 | 18 |
| Obstetrics and gynaecology | 75.0 | 30 | 12.5 | 5 | 10.0 | 4 | 2.5 | 1 | 40 |
| Anaesthetics | 71.7 | 109 | 12.5 | 19 | 9.2 | 14 | 6.6 | 10 | 152 |
| Radiology | 79.4 | 54 | 8.8 | 6 | 4.4 | 3 | 7.4 | 5 | 68 |
| Clinical oncology | 62.5 | 15 | 4.2 | 1 | 20.8 | 5 | 12.5 | 3 | 24 |
| Pathology | 67.5 | 77 | 16.7 | 19 | 8.8 | 10 | 7.0 | 8 | 114 |
| Psychiatry | 61.7 | 87 | 21.3 | 30 | 7.8 | 11 | 9.2 | 13 | 141 |
χ2 tests for: retirement status (χ2 3=28.0, p<0.001), cohort (χ2 3=7.9, p=0.048), gender (χ2 3=7.6, p=0.54) and specialty group (χ2 30=56.4, p=0.002). The 1974 graduates by specialty group (χ2 30=34.4, p=0.264) and the 1977 graduates by specialty group (χ2 30=44.7, p=0.041). The 1974 graduates by gender (χ2 3=3.3, p=0.348) and the 1977 graduates by gender (χ2 3=3.5, p=0.318). Within each specialty group, by gender, only anaesthetics was significant (χ2 3=11.3, p=0.010).