It’s official – female doctors are better than men
If you’re going into hospital, you want to know you’re getting the best care possible.
That now officially includes having a female doctor.
That’s because a new study has found patients are less likely to die when their doctor is a woman – with female patients enjoying an even lower risk.
Patients are also less likely to be readmitted after leaving hospital when they were treated by a female doctor.
The team behind the study said several factors may be behind the differences, and suggest that male doctors may underestimate the severity of their female patients’ illness.
Previous research has also noted that male doctors underestimate female patients’ pain levels, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular symptoms, and stroke risk, which could lead to delayed or incomplete care.
What is the Gender Pain Gap?
The Gender Pain Gap refers to how pain in women is poorly understood, and is therefore mistreated compared to men, which is due to systemic gaps and biases.
Research reveals that there are 28 million people suffering from chronic pain in the UK, and 70% of them are women. However, they are more likely to be misdiagnosed and their pain not taken as seriously as male patients.
One such condition, according to the WHO, is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which affects 8–13% of reproductive-aged women but 70% of affected women remain undiagnosed worldwide.
Study senior author Professor Yusuke Tsugawa said patient outcomes should not differ between male and female physicians if they practise medicine the same way.
‘What our findings indicate is that female and male physicians practice medicine differently, and these differences have a meaningful impact on patients’ health outcomes,’ he said.
The University of Tokyo and University of California, LA (UCLA) team examined US medical insurance claims for more than 458,000 female and 319,000 male patients between 2016 and 2019. f those, 142,500 and 97,500 – around 31% for both – were treated by female doctors.
The mortality rate for female patients was 8.15% when treated by female doctors compared to 8.38% when the doctor was male.
That might not sound a lot, but when the numbers involved are so high, it is a ‘clinically significant’ difference, the researchers said.
While the difference for male patients was slightly smaller, female physicians still had the edge with a 10.15% mortality rate compared with male doctors’ 10.23% rate.
The American research team found the same pattern for hospital readmission rates.
They examined Medicare claims data from 2016 to 2019 for more than 458,000 female and over 319,000 male patients. Of those, 142,500 and 97,500 – around 31% for both – were treated by female doctors.
The team suggested that female doctors may communicate better with their female patients, making it more likely that patients provide important information leading to better diagnosis and treatment.
They also said that female patients may be more comfortable with receiving sensitive examinations and engaging in detailed conversations with female doctors.
However, the authors noted that more research is needed into how and why male and female physicians practise medicine differently and its impact on patient care.
Professor Tsugawa, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, said: ‘A better understanding of this topic could lead to the development of interventions that effectively improve patient care.’
He says gender pay gaps among doctors should also be eliminated.
Professor Tsugawa added: ‘It is important to note that female physicians provide high-quality care, and therefore, having more female physicians benefits patients from a societal point-of-view.’
The findings are published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.