Table 3.

Factors contributing to retirement decisions by specialty

Factor	Specialty group
	Hospital medical specialties (n=237)	Surgery (n=206)	General practice (n=1249)	Paediatrics (n=114)	Anaesthetics (n=157)	Pathology (n=119)	Psychiatry (n=147)	Total (n=2229)
To increase time for leisure/other interests	55.3	45.1	52.5	47.4	52.9	52.9	45.6	51.5
Pressure of work*	32.5	28.6	51.6	41.2	32.5	42.0	37.4	44.1
Reduced job satisfaction	34.6	44.2	44.6	40.4	38.9	35.3	45.6	42.4
To maintain good health	29.5	29.6	34.7	24.6	36.9	22.7	31.3	32.5
Financial security/insufficient financial incentive to stay	27.0	31.1	30.0	21.9	34.4	24.4	35.4	29.7
The prospect of revalidation	21.9	18.9	26.7	22.8	24.2	20.2	15.6	24.0
Possibility of deteriorating skill/competence*	9.7	16.0	20.3	15.8	31.2	9.2	10.2	18.0
Other*	21.5	19.9	13.1	21.1	17.2	20.2	23.8	16.4
Not wanting to do out-of-hours work*	13.1	29.6	9.8	16.7	29.3	16.0	14.3	14.3
Retirement of spouse/partner	18.6	8.3	16.6	19.3	14.0	16.8	12.9	15.7
Family reasons	18.6	14.1	15.1	19.3	8.9	9.2	11.6	14.6
Poor health	8.9	8.7	11.5	9.6	7.6	14.3	9.5	10.6
None of the above: I just wanted to retire	5.5	5.8	7.5	9.6	4.5	6.7	5.4	6.9

Table shows specialties with over 100 respondents.

For numbers corresponding to percentages, and numbers for small number specialties, see online supplementary appendix 1.

Significantly high or low percentages are indicated in boldface.

*Specialty comparisons on each row of the table (χ² ₆ tests): p<0.001.