Abstract
Purpose :
To describe trends in the number of men and women reporting a subspecialty practice focus among American Board of Ophthalmology (ABO) Diplomates.
Methods :
The de-identified records of all ABO-certified ophthalmologists between 1992-2020 were obtained. Certification year, gender, and self-reported primary practice area for each ophthalmologist were extracted. Subspecialty was defined as the self-reported primary practice area. The data was then organized (Table 1) and longitudinal trends were graphed using Microsoft Excel. Chi-square analysis was conducted using R (R Foundation, Vienna, Austria).
Results :
A total of 12,844 board-certified ophthalmologists were included: 8,459 men (66%) and 4,385 women (34%). Of those, 3,940 (46%) men and 2,102 (48%) women reported a subspecialty. A significantly greater proportion of women than men reported primary practice in pediatrics (9.9% vs. 3.7%, p <0.001) and glaucoma (10.4% vs. 7.4%, p < 0.0001). A significantly greater proportion of men than women reported primary practice in vitreoretinal surgery (22.0% vs. 10.6%, p < 0.0001). There was no difference between the proportion of men and women reporting cornea (p=0.15) or oculoplastics (p=0.31). The gender composition of different subspecialties has changed from 1992-2020 (Figure 1). For new ophthalmologists certifying with the ABO, Oculoplastics has shifted from 27% of women certifying in 1992 to 49% in 2020. Specialization of women has increased from 21% certifying in glaucoma and 25% certifying in cornea to almost 56% in 2020 for both specialties. Representation of women certifying per year has increased in surgical retina from 12% to 25%, however, men still outnumber women 3:1, even among ABO diplomates from 2020. Women became the majority in pediatric ophthalmology around the year 2000, and in 2020 they made up 76% of new subspecialists.
Conclusions :
The number of men entering ophthalmology outnumbers that of women 2:1 over the time period of this study, hence they remain the majority in ophthalmology and consequently, in most subspecialties. The gender makeup of ophthalmology subspecialties has changed between 1992 and 2020. The changes are not uniform across subspecialties, with some subspecialties closing the gender gap.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.