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.