Doctors across the country are getting a checkup.
A national study launched by the Centre for Physician Health and Well-being of the Canadian Medical Association will survey physicians' health, from nutrition and physical activity to job satisfaction and burnout.
"There's abundant data in the literature showing a relationship between mental health issues such as depression and exercise for example," said Dr. Erica Frank, the principal investigator and the Canada Research Chair in Preventative Medicine and Population Health at the University of British Columbia.
"There are a number of other areas that we'll be looking at as well. One of the key pieces that we're going to be looking at is physicians' personal health practices because there's a lot of really interesting research that shows that can really make a difference in the population."
The surveys are sent out to more than 8,000 randomly selected practising physicians.
Dr. Vino Padayachee, the chief of staff at St. Joseph's Hospital of Estevan and the past Saskatchewan Medical Association president, is keen to participate and hopes many of his counterparts do the same.
"This is not just about physician health," he said. "Indirectly it's about patient health. If you have healthy physicians, then you'll have healthy patients. We don't allow airline pilots to fly beyond a certain number of hours because of the risk to the passengers and we should look at the same thing for physicians as well."
CMA research conducted in 2003 reported that 46 per cent of physician respondents were in advanced stages of burnout.
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