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

RespondentsI retired when I had planned to retireIt was unplanned and due to a change in the work environmentIt was unplanned and due to changes in personal circumstancesOtherTotal (100%)
%n%n%n%nN
All66.8160814.033613.73295.51332406
Retirement status
 Retired65.4100913.620916.32514.7731542
 Retired and returned69.359914.71279.0786.960864
Cohort
 1974 graduates69.376213.014311.91315.7631099
 1977 graduates64.784614.819315.11985.4701307
Gender
 Men68.4109113.120912.72035.7911594
 Women63.751715.612715.51265.242812
Specialty group
 Hospital medical specialties62.414113.33014.6339.722226
 Surgery71.313913.82712.3242.65195
 General practice67.180913.416215.21834.3521206
 Paediatrics66.17212.81413.8157.38109
 Emergency medicine77.8140.0022.240.0018
 Obstetrics and gynaecology75.03012.5510.042.5140
  Anaesthetics71.710912.5199.2146.610152
 Radiology79.4548.864.437.4568
 Clinical oncology62.5154.2120.8512.5324
 Pathology67.57716.7198.8107.08114
 Psychiatry61.78721.3307.8119.213141
  • 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).