To the Editor:
In their interesting and important report of a national survey of older anesthesiologists, Orkin et al.1 note that “Retirement age has been increasing, from a mean age of 57.4 yr among anesthesiologists who retired before 1985 to 63.9 yr among those who retired in the period 1995–1999 (r = 0.28; P value less than 0.001).” The title of the accompanying editorial2 asks “Is 64 the New 57?”
We believe that the retirement age of only 57 yr, reported for those who retired before 1985, is most likely incorrect. The survey included only physicians who were aged 50–79 yr in the spring of 2006; that is, anyone who would have been older than 58 yr in 1985 was excluded from the sample population. So, no surprise that for those doctors in the surveyed group, who had retired before 1985, the mean age was 57.4 yr. Clearly, a broader sample population, which included anesthesiologists up to 90 yr of age, would be needed to estimate retirement age more accurately for those who retired before 1985.
