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Comment by statquontrarian | Hacker News Reader

Quick Google Scholar search shows the following study with the conclusion, "U.S. physicians were more likely to use hospice and ICU‐ or CCU‐level care. Hospitalization rates were similar."

How U.S. Doctors Die: A Cohort Study of Healthcare Use at the End of Life, https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.14112

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> Inpatient hospital use in the last 6 months of life was no different between physicians and nonphysicians, although more physicians used hospice and for longer (using the hospital: odds ratio (OR) = 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.93–1.04; hospital days: mean difference 0.26, P = .14); dying in the hospital: OR = 0.99, 95% CI = 0.95–1.04; intensive care unit (ICU) or critical care unit (CCU) days: mean difference 0.35 more days for physicians, P < .001); using hospice: OR = 1.23, 95% CI = 1.18–1.29; number of days in hospice: mean difference 2.06, P < .001).

Clearly contradicts the OP, and looks a lot more factually based.

A 94% male cohort is so wildly disproportionate to the actual population of physicians (60% female) that it beggars belief. There are a number of potential confounding factors that could explain this ("natural" death being disproportionately represented and skewing the age of the cohort being, imho, the most likely), but with this skew against the total physician population... best taken with a whole lick of salt.

Remember, you're not comparing the distribution of present physicians. You're comparing to the cohort of physicians old enough to die a few years ago. You won't know what the cohort of current physicians will do in old age until they get old.

My 74 YO relative was 1 of 5 in her graduating class of 210 from a US medical school. Women being even a significant minority of US physicians is a new thing.

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