Motivations of Israeli physicians to return, or not, to Israel after their fellowship abroad

Table 1 Demographic and professional characteristics of the 297 study participants

Variable	Category	N	%
Current place of residence	Israel	141	47.5
	Country of fellowship	149	50.2
	Other Country	7	2.4
Age—Mean (IQR)		38.4	(37–40)
Gender	Female	121	40.7
Gender	Male	174	58.6
First year of fellowship	2022–2024	118	39.7
	2019–2021	102	34.3
	2016–2018	48	16.2
	2013–2015	29	9.8
Birth Country	Israel	255	85.9
Birth Country	Non-Israel	42	14.1
Ethnicity	Jewish	275	92.6
Ethnicity	Non-Jewish	20	6.7
Place of residence before fellowship	Tel-Aviv and Central Israel	196	66.0
	Jerusalem and West Bank	31	10.4
	Haifa and Northern Israel	50	16.8
	Southern Israel	20	6.7
Marital Status	Married or known in public	284	95.6
	Divorced	4	1.3
	Single	9	3.0
Number of children—Mean (IQR)		2.4	(2–3)
Oldest Child Age- Mean (IQR)		7.8	(5–10)
Youngest Child Age—Mean (IQR)		3.3	(2–5)
Religiousness*	Secular	204	68.7
Religiousness*	Religious	91	30.6
Country of Medical School	Israel	225	75.8
Country of Medical School	Abroad	56	18.9
Location of origin hospital**	Central Israel	263	88.6
Location of origin hospital**	Periphery	34	11.4
Country of fellowship	USA	134	45.1
	Canada	89	30.0
	UK	22	7.4
	Australia and New-Zealand	31	10.4
	Europe	15	5.1
	Other	6	2.0
Type of fellowship	Clinical	189	63.6
	Research	32	10.8
	Combined- clinical and research	76	25.6
Medical Specialty***	Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Oncology Anesthesia, and Other Non-surgical	123	41%
	General Surgery, Neurosurgery, Cardiothoracic surgery	40	13%
	Orthopedic Surgery, Urology, ENT, Ophthalmology, Plastic surgery, Maxillofacial Surgery	88	29%
	Obstetrics and Gynecology	24	8%
	Psychiatry	5	2%
	Radiology	17	6%

There are a few missing values due to participants who chose not to answer specific questions, the relative proportion (%) accounts for missing values
ENT Ear nose and throat surgery, IQR Interquartile range, N number, UK United Kingdom, USA United States of America
^*Religiousness was assessed on a scale of 1 to 5 and answers ≥ 1 were regarded as religious
^**Location of origin hospital – periphery was defined as hospitals entitled to a periphery grant
^***Detailed list of medical Specialties in Table S1

ISSN: 2045-4015