title: [The happy doctor].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Descriptive, questionnaire-based. To study what makes doctors and medical students happy: Descriptive, questionnaire-based.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive, questionnaire-based.
  
  
  METHODS
  For the purposes of this study, doctors and medical students completed an online questionnaire in the summer of 2012. They were presented with questions enquiring into general characteristics and into happiness. We asked them to define happiness, and to describe their happiest moments. The results were interpreted with the aid of simple statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  401 doctors, registrars and medical students took part in the study. 41% of the respondents were male and 59% female. Average age was 40 years. Students, GPs, anaesthesiologists and internists were the best represented. On average, the participants gave their 'happiness' a score of 7.6. The younger doctors (< 30 years) were slightly less happy (7.4) than doctors > 48 years (7.8), which also explains the relatively low scores for students (7.1). GPs were the happiest, with an average score of 7.9, closely followed by the 'other doctors', with an average score of 7.8, and the medical specialists (7.6). Within the specialties, bearing in mind that the low numbers means that results should be interpreted with some caution, the doctors with 'minority specialties' were the happiest, followed by internists and the supporting specialties. Psychiatrists and surgical colleagues can be found at the bottom of the list. The determinants 'love and relationships' and 'family' contribute the most to feeling happy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Older doctors are happier than younger doctors and GPs are generally happier than medical specialists. The determinants 'love and relationships' and family' are the most important for doctors' happiness.
authors.affiliation: Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. c.van-dongen@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Christel M P
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: van Dongen
authors.forename: Yolanda
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: van der Graaf
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D006240:Happiness; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008149:Love; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*; D013038:Specialization; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires