US Pediatricians’ Self-Rated General Health Status: 2012–2023

Gottschlich EA, Byrne BJ, Frintner MP

Presented at the 2025 Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting

Background: Prior research has shown self-rated health declines as adults age. Cross-sectional studies only provide a snapshot of self-rated health.

Objective: Utilize the unique capabilities of longitudinal data to examine whether self-rated health is changing over time among two cohorts of pediatricians and identify personal and professional changes associated with reporting better or worse health.

Methods: We analyzed national, longitudinal cohort data from the AAP Pediatrician Life and Career Experience Study (PLACES) collected in 2012-2023 from the 2002-2004 and 2009-2011 Residency Graduates Cohorts. Participation ranged from 75-93%. Pediatricians reported their general health status (poor, fair, good, very good, excellent) each year. Mixed-effects logistic regression for longitudinal analysis was used to examine self-rated health over time. Separate models examined self-rated health (excellent vs all others) for participants overall and by subgroups of characteristics that did not change: a) sex (female, male); b) race and ethnicity (non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Asian, URiM or Other); and c) US Census region (NE, MW, S, W). Another model examined personal and professional characteristics that might change over time (time-variant) to assess how these changes might be linked to better or worse reported health (survey year and the characteristics above were also included in the model).

Results: Analyses included 17,926 observations from 1,790 PLACES pediatricians. From 2012 to 2023, between 30.6% and 15.1% of PLACES pediatricians reported excellent health, 4 in 10 reported very good health, 23.1%-34.3% reported good health, and 4.2%-10.9% reported poor or fair health (Figure). Mixed-effects models showed significant decreases in the percentage of pediatricians reporting excellent health across time for all participants and for each subgroup examined (Table). An additional mixed-effects model identified personal and professional changes associated with self-rated health. Increased physical activity was associated with better reported health (aOR=2.79, 95% CI=2.27-3.44; p<.001). Becoming a parent (0.54, 0.37-0.78; p<.01) and increased work hours (0.986, 0.976-0.995; p<.01) were associated with worse reported health.

Conclusion: Nearly 1 in 6 PLACES pediatricians reported excellent health in 2023. Self-rated health worsened over the 12-year study period for all participants. Increased physical activity was associated with reporting better health, while becoming a parent and increased work hours were associated with reporting worse health.

Figure 1. PLACES Pediatricians’ Unadjusted Self-Rated General Health Status

Table 1. PLACES Pediatricians’ Self-Rated Health by Characteristic Subgroups, 2012-2023