Texas residents looking to enter the health care field may want to learn about a new study on the divorce rates of medical professionals. Researchers in Massachusetts analyzed the responses to survey questions that were posed to more than 240,000 health care professionals between 2008 and 2013. The data was gathered from doctors, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and health care executives.
Despite popular belief that busy doctors are more likely to get divorced, the study actually found that the opposite was true. Fewer than 25 percent of doctors who were surveyed reported that they had been divorced, making them less likely than most other categories of health care professionals to be divorced. Participants in the study who were the least likely to be divorced were pharmacists, who reported being divorced 23 percent of the time.
According to the study, nurses and health care executives were more likely than other health care professionals to go through a divorce. One-third of the nurse who were surveyed and 31 percent of health care executives answered in the affirmative when asked if they had gone through a divorce. The study also showed that 25 percent of dentists had seen their marriages end. In a news release, a study lead author commented that there was a notable difference in the divorce rates of female and male physicians. Female doctors surveyed reported being divorced 1.5 times more often than male doctors who were surveyed.
Doctors, nurses and other health care professionals often work long hours at their jobs. For people in these occupations, the process of going through a divorce may take up extra time that they simply don’t have. A person in this situation might want to have an attorney to represent their interests during property division or child custody negotiations.
Source: U.S. News & World Report, “Doctors Less Likely to Divorce, Study Finds”, Robert Preidt, Feb. 19, 2015
