If you're a married physician, where are you most likely to work? If your spouse is well-educated, chances are that it's not in a rural, underserved area.
The discovery is from a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Here are six findings from the study.
1. The study looked at a number of physicians over the course of many years. For every decade from 1960 to 2000, researchers analyzed 1 percent of employed physicians between the ages of 25 and 70. To gather their results, they also examined 1 percent of employed physicians in the same age group every year from 2005 to 2011. The data was obtained from the Decennial Census and the American Community Survey.
2. The percentage of physicians married to a highly educated spouse increased 45.2 percentage points between 1960 and 2010. In the study, a highly educated spouse was defined as a person with six or more years of college (for data before 1990) and a person with a master's degree or higher (for data after 1990). In 1960, 8.8 percent of physicians were married to well-educated spouses, and in 2010, 54.1 percent of physicians were married to highly educated spouses.
3. Physicians with highly educated spouses weren't as likely to work in certain areas. The researchers found across the board, physicians with well-educated spouses weren't as likely to practice in rural areas, including designated Health Professional Shortage Areas.
4. Other groups were also less likely to practice in rural areas. Single physicians, young physicians, female physicians, African American physicians and Hispanic physicians were not as likely to work in rural, underserved areas. Between 2005 and 2011, only 5.3 percent of physicians worked in rural HPSAs.
5. One of the study's co-authors proposed a potential solution. Peter Buerhaus, PhD, RN, a co-author of the study, said the results are indicative of the growing need for policymakers to encourage physicians to practice in rural parts of the nation. Along with the other study authors, Dr. Buerhaus suggested initiatives should be taken to address this problem. For example, telemedicine provisions could be put in place so physicians can practice in rural areas without having to relocate.
6. Dr. Buerhaus also outlined another solution. He suggested nurse practitioners can play a large role in solving the rural medical provider shortage. "Other recently published studies show that nurse practitioners are more likely than physicians to practice in rural areas and underserved areas," he said, according to Montana State University News Service. "...[P]olicymakers need to broaden their approach and consider increasing the number of nurse practitioners as a means to provide healthcare to these populations."