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LARS study: Latin American rheumatologist survey

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Abstract

Background/objective

Latin America has scarce information related to rheumatologist’s education, working conditions, productivity, and job satisfaction. The purpose of this survey was to describe the training and clinical practice characteristics of the rheumatology community in Latin America.

Methods

This is a cross-sectional study. A digital survey was created, approved, and endorsed by the scientific committee of the Pan-American League of Associations for Rheumatology (PANLAR) and later sent to the rheumatology associations of the region. The data was analyzed in the statistical program SPSS v.22.

Results

We included 600 surveys of rheumatologists from 19 Latin American countries. The majority were females (53%) and mestizos (58%). The mean age was 46.8 ± 11.7 years. The most frequent workplace was public/government hospitals 33.5% followed by private practice 28.8%, private hospital 20.8%, and university hospital 15.5%. The average number of weekly working hours was 37.8 ± 17.7. 87.5% worked in adult rheumatology, 12.7% pediatric rheumatology, and 23.5% internal medicine. Average satisfaction with practice as a rheumatologist was 5.3/7, career options 4.3/7, location 4.7/7, income 3.5/7, job security 3.7/7, and colleagues and co-workers 4.5/7. Finally, 69.7% had an annual compensation of < 50,000 US dollars.

Conclusions

The majority of the rheumatologists in the region who responded were women, worked in public hospitals, and were satisfied with their clinical practice. There was a low level of income for the region.

Key Points

• This is the first study that showed the demographic and clinical practice characteristics of rheumatologists in Latin America.

• The challenges faced by Latin rheumatologists are like those faced by the region: ethnic diversity, gender differences, migration, difficult access to education, limited research, and low income.

• Due to the high prevalence of rheumatic diseases and the shortage of professionals in this area, it is essential to analyze the current workforce and the projections of supply and demand in rheumatology that are expected in the future.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge the support of the Scientific Committee of PANLAR. In addition, the authors thank all the secretary department in the different Rheumatology Associations of the region.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad de Especialidades Espíritu Santo, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Maria Intriago, Genessis Maldonado, Roberto Guerrero & Carlos Rios

  2. Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Enrique Soriano

  3. Centro de Reumatología y Rehabilitación, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Letty Moreno

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  1. Maria Intriago
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  2. Genessis Maldonado
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  4. Enrique Soriano
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  5. Letty Moreno
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Contributions

Study conception and design: Ríos C, Maldonado G

Acquisition of data: Maldonado G, Rios C, Moreno M, Soriano E

Analysis and interpretation of data: Maldonado G, Guerrero R, Intriago M, Rios C

Drafting of manuscript: Intriago M, Maldonado G, Guerrero R

Critical revision: Rios C, Soriano E, Moreno L, Maldonado G

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Genessis Maldonado.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

The study was approved by the Ethics, Education and Science Committee of the Pan American League of Associations of Rheumatology (PANLAR) and thus was performed following the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki. Data was anonymous, so informed consent was not obtained during this study.

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None.

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The manuscript has not been submitted or published elsewhere with the exception of abstracts published with scientific meetings:

• PANLAR 2019 Meeting. Quito, Ecuador.

• ACR Annual Meeting 2019. Atlanta, USA.

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Intriago, M., Maldonado, G., Guerrero, R. et al. LARS study: Latin American rheumatologist survey. Clin Rheumatol 40, 377–387 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10067-020-05240-y

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