A new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) finds that female US pediatricians reported worse anxiety, sadness, and stress at work than their male colleagues, and the differences were more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study, published today in Pediatrics, was based on survey responses gathered during the AAP Pediatrician Life and Career Experience Study, which asked questions about career satisfaction and wellbeing from 2012 to 2021 among cohorts of 2002–2004 and 2009–2011 pediatric residency graduates.

A total of 1,760 respondents were included in the study, and they were surveyed twice per year. The survey included four measures of wellbeing: anxiety, sadness, stress at work, and stress balancing home and work. The survey also asked about general health.

The participants were 73.4% female, with both 80% of female and male respondents reporting general satisfaction with their careers.

Pandemic exacerbated anxiety

In the wellbeing categories, 22.6% of women and 14.2% of men reported feeling anxiety in the prepandemic years. After the pandemic began, 29.3% of women said they were anxious, compared with only 12.4% of men.

Similar trends were seen with sadness and stress at work. Male pediatricians reported little change in the pandemic years, while female pediatricians noted a significant increase.

Overall, female pediatricians reported twice as much stress as male pediatricians.

"Although we did not see a change in reported stress balancing home and work responsibilities during the pandemic, overall, female pediatricians reported twice as much stress as male pediatricians," the authors wrote. "Among pediatrics, which has a high rate of female physicians, there is a need for more attention on programs and policies at the organizational and structural levels designed to ameliorate these disparities and better support female pediatricians."