The Life Expectancy of Medical Professionals in the Netherlands, Sixteenth to Twentieth Centuries

Which social groups are the first to profit from medical progress? Is the medical profession in the best position to reap the gains of accumulated knowledge and avoid premature death? These questions are relevant today, but even more so for earlier times, when only a minority had access to medical know-how and the benefits it procured. Using extensive historical databases covering the last four centuries in the Netherlands, Frans van Popp el, Govert Bijwaard, Mart van Lieburg, Fred van Lieburg, Rik Hoekstra and Frans Verkade compare the life expectancy of medical practitioners with that of other privileged social groups, including nobles, notable persons, artists and clergymen. Their findings show that direct access to medical knowledge does not guarantee better health, and that difficult living and working conditions may have partially cancelled out the medical practitioners' advantage.