You've a Better Chance of Not Dying With a Female Doctor, Study Finds

Patients have lower rates of mortality when they are treated by female doctors, new research suggests.

An international team of researchers analysed the data from more than 776,000 male and female patients aged 65 years or older and treated between 2016 and 2019.

They found that patients treated by women physicians are also less likely to be readmitted to hospital, and that female patients benefit even more than their male counterparts when they're treated by women.

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For the research, Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles, and her team examined Medicare claims data from around 458,100 female and nearly 319,800 male patients. Of those, 142,500 (female) and 97,500 (male) were treated by female doctors.

The team then analyzed patient mortality and readmission 30 days after hospital admission.

When treated by a female doctor, female patients had a mortality rate of 8.15% compared to an 8.38% rate when a male doctor treated them. According to the researchers, this is a clinically significant difference.

While the difference for male patients was smaller, female physicians had a 10.15% mortality rate and male doctors had a 10.23% rate.

The researchers found the same pattern for hospital readmission rates.

Although patient outcomes should not differ between male and female doctors, the data shows a clear discrepancy that may indicate they practice medicine differently.

In the paper, the researchers suggest there may be several factors driving these differences. Firstly, male doctors may underestimate the severity of their female patients' illnesses, which is often referred to as the "gender pain gap" in medical literature.

Prior research has noted that male doctors underestimate women's pain levels, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular symptoms and stroke risk, which could lead to delayed or incomplete care.

The researchers also propose that female doctors may communicate better with their female patients, which can lead to patients providing important information that can improve diagnoses and treatment.

Finally, female patients may also be more comfortable with receiving sensitive examinations and engaging in detailed conversations with female doctors.

"What our findings indicate is that female and male physicians practice medicine differently, and these differences have a meaningful impact on patients' health outcomes," Tsugawa said in a statement.

"Further research on the underlying mechanisms linking physician gender with patient outcomes, and why the benefit of receiving the treatment from female physicians is larger for female patients, has the potential to improve patient outcomes across the board."

The full findings of the study were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

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