Table 1.

Physicians’ characteristics by region in 2015

Items	Total N = 17,615	East N (%)	Central N (%)	West N (%)
Age, years
≤ 30	4434(25.2%)	1858(25.2%)	1026(22.2%)	1550(27.6%)
31–40	7970(45.2%)	3316(45.0%)	2162(46.8%)	2492(44.3%)
41–50	3753(21.3%)	1632(22.1%)	971(21.0%)	1150(20.5%)
≥ 51	1458(8.3%)	565(7.6%)	462(10.0%)	431(7.7%)
Years in practice
< 10	10,076(57.2%)	4188(56.8%)	2553(55.2%)	3335(59.3%)
10–19	4300(24.4%)	1848(25.1%)	1144(24.8%)	1308(23.3%)
≥ 20	3239(18.4%)	1335(18.1%)	924(20.0%)	1335(18.1%)
Education
Bachelor’s degree and below	5145(29.2%)	1612(21.9%)	1028(22.2%)	2505(44.5%)
Master’s	8242(46.8%)	3337(45.3%)	2489(53.9%)	2416(43.0%)
Doctorate	4228(24.0%)	2422(32.9%)	1104(23.9%)	702(12.5%)
Technical title
Resident	5589(31.7%)	2241(30.4%)	1344(29.1%)	2004(35.6%)
Attending	6122(34.8%)	2665(36.2%)	1627(35.2%)	1830(32.5%)
Associate chief	3572(20.3%)	1488(20.2%	995(21.5%)	1089(19.4%)
Chief	2332(13.2%)	977(13.3%)	655(14.2%)	700(12.4%)
Management position
Yes	2422(13.9%)	982(13.3%)	702(15.2%)	758(13.5%)
No	15,173(86.1%)	6389(86.7%)	3919(84.8%)	4865(86.5%)
Specialty
Internal medicine	4905(27.8%)	2098(28.5%)	1427(30.9%)	1380(24.5%)
Surgery	3303(18.8%)	1431(19.4%)	952(20.6%)	920(16.4%)
Obstetrics	2661(15.1%)	1156(15.7%)	717(15.5%)	788(14.0%)
Paediatrics	1407(8.0%)	442(6.0%)	332(7.2%)	633(11.3%)
Emergency medicine	744(8.0%)	327(4.4%)	145(3.1%)	272(4.8%)
Traditional Chinese medicine	812(4.6%)	334(4.5%)	182(3.9%)	296(5.3%)
Otolaryngology	935(5.3%)	371(5.0%)	228(4.9%)	336(6.0%)
Anaesthesiology	778(4.4%)	312(4.2%)	180(3.9%)	286(5.1%)
Ophthalmology	536(3.0%)	298(4.0%)	107(2.3%)	131(2.3%)
Stomatology	693(3.9%)	300(4.1%)	169(3.7%)	224(4.0%)
Other	841(4.8%)	302(4.1%)	182(3.9%)	357(6.3%)