Surgeon Risk of Mortality Is Highest among All Physician Types

Patel VR, Stearns SA, Liu M, et al. Mortality Among Surgeons in the United States. JAMA Surg. 2025; in press. 

Compared with other highly educated professionals, nonsurgeon physicians have lower mortality rates; however, this mortality benefit does not extend to surgeons. 

Vishal Patel and colleagues in the Boston area studied data from the 2023 National Vital Statistics System and cross-referenced with data from the 2023 American Community Survey and American Medical Association Physician Masterfile. 

They found that, among more than 1 million decedents in the dataset, 224 (0.02%) were surgeons and 2,740 (0.25%) were other physicians. Compared with the nonsurgeon physician group, surgeons had a mortality ratio rate that was 50% higher—similar to the mortality rate for lawyers, engineers, and scientists, but lower than the rate for all other workers. 

Neoplasms and heart disease were the leading causes of death across all occupation groups, with mortality from neoplasms higher among surgeons (193.2 per 100,000 population) than any other group, including nonsurgeon physicians (87.5 per 100,000 population). In addition, surgeons had a higher mortality rate from motor vehicle collisions, hypertension, and assault. 

The researchers hypothesize that the higher mortality rates among surgeons might reflect differences related to work environment, professional demands, and lifestyle. They say more research is needed to understand other observed mortality patterns among surgeons, such as elevated cancer-specific mortality and assault, as well as a year-over-year comparison to undercover potential trends.