Mediating Factors and Well-Being Differences by Gender Among Academic Physicians

What factors account for differences in occupational well-being between female and male physicians at academic medical centers?In this survey study of 16 731 physicians, female physicians had higher levels of occupational distress than male physicians. Mediation models exploring the factors associated with occupational well-being demonstrated a total mediation for the association of gender with burnout and partial mediation for the association of gender with professional fulfillment; among these factors, self-valuation accounted for the majority of the difference in burnout between female and male physicians.These findings suggest that system-level interventions to improve self-care and self-compassion among academic physicians are likely to be particularly beneficial to female physicians.

Corresponding Author: Miriam T. Stewart, MD, Department of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (stewartm2@chop.edu).

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