Turnover of Full-time Occupational Physicians in Japan in the Period 2002–2008: A Component Model Survey

Objective: Recently, the number of occupational physicians has greatly increased compared to other types of physician in Japan, and the number of unfilled job vacancies remains high, suggesting a higher turnover of occupational physicians. Job turnover and seniority are important indices for measuring the balance of vacancies and applicants, as well as for improving occupational health services; however, job turnover and career moves of occupational physicians are currently not known. Method : Based on a component model study of physicians, dentists and pharmacists, we made a component model of 4 levels (national, prefectural, urban, and municipal levels) and estimated the turnover and regional migration of occupational physicians. As a reference for the component models, we used the 2008/2006 cross-tabulation data of each type of physician published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Results : The municipality level component model fitted the data best. The increase in occupational physicians for the 2 yr was 283–348, and the decrease was 202–222, indicating that 55–65% of occupational physicians quit their post within 2 yr. Conclusions : The propensity for short tenure is observed not only in occupational medicine, but also in emergency and rehabilitation medicine. It is suspected that 80% of new occupational physicians, except those graduating from the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, quit their positions within two years. This is a remarkably short tenure period compared to the 5.6 yr average seniority of physicians reported in the Basic Survey of Wage Structure. The reasons for the high job turnover of occupational physicians are thought to be unrelated to income or license renewal. We need to survey the actual reasons for the short tenure of occupational physicians to provide insights into lifetime education and career organization of occupational physicians.