Women admitted to hospital in the US who are treated by female doctors are less likely to die or be readmitted to hospital, a new study has found.
The study, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, looked at over 800,000 people aged 65 and above, and found that among the female patients treated by female physicians, 8.15 per cent died within 30 days, while a slightly higher proportion (8.38 per cent) died when treated by male physicians.
Despite the seemingly small difference, researchers believe that closing the gap could prevent the deaths of up to 5,000 women each year.
Meanwhile, the gender of a doctor for male patients admitted to hospital had no effect on their risk of death or hospital readmission.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Atsushi Miyawaki, attributed the reduced likelihood of “miscommunication, misunderstanding and bias” from female doctors to better outcomes for female patients.
Previous studies have shown that women are likelier to report having negative experiences within the health care system, having their concerns disregarded, and having their heart or pain symptoms overlooked.
Male doctors are also likelier than female doctors to underestimate a female patient’s risk of stroke.
According to Dr Miyawaki, a senior assistant professor of health services research at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine, part of the issue lies in the fact that medical students receive “limited training in women’s health issues.”
Dr. Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health, told NBC News that women’s “pain and our symptoms are often dismissed.”
“It may be that women physicians are more aware of that and are more empathetic,” she said. “Women primary care doctors also tend to spend more time with their patients.”
The latest retrospective observational study constitutes a growing trend of research that examines the association between a doctor’s gender and the hospital outcomes of female and male patients.
One Canadian study from 2021 found that female patients developed fewer complications when their surgeon was also female. Last year, another study from Sweden found that both male and female patients developed fewer complications and had shorter hospital stays when they were operated on by female surgeons. The study observed that female surgeons spent longer in the operating room than male surgeons.
Commenting on the latest research, Dr. Ashish Jha, Dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said that the results confirm several previous studies showing better outcomes for patients treated by female doctors.
“There’s lots of variation between women and men physicians,” Dr Jha said.
Women “tend to be better at communication, listening to patients, speaking openly. Patients report that communication is better. You put these things together, and you can understand why there are small but important differences.”
Due to the extra attention they give their patients, female doctors ultimately see fewer patients each day, meaning they end up earning less, on average, than their male counterparts.