Patients who are treated by a female doctor have a higher chance of survival, according to joint research from the University of California (UCLA) and the University of Tokyo. During the study, they worked from the data of more than 700,000 American patients over the age of 65 between 2016 and 2019.
Female patients did really well, as the death rate within 30 days was 8.15 percent when they were treated by a female doctor, compared to 8.38 percent otherwise. This may not seem like much at first, but according to the authors, it is a clinically significant difference. The mortality rate was similar for men, but the difference was smaller: it was 10.15 percent with a female doctor and 10.23 percent with a male doctor.
Approximately 31 percent of both female and male patients were treated by a female doctor, and they fared better not only in terms of mortality, but also in the rate of readmission to the hospital. No significant differences were seen in the other indicators (for example, length of hospitalization).
According to the researchers, this may be due to the fact that in many cases male and female doctors treat with different methods. Based on previous research, male doctors often underestimate female patients’ complaints, feelings of pain, intestinal and cardiovascular complaints, so the patients do not receive adequate care.
Female doctors are likely to communicate more effectively with female patients, so they are more likely to pass on important information, leading to faster diagnosis and more effective treatment. The authors also noted that female patients prefer certain tests to be performed by female doctors.
“Our findings show that female and male physicians practice medicine differently, and these differences have a significant impact on patient outcomes”
said dr. Júszuke Cugava, a researcher at UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, is one of the authors of the study. He emphasized that further studies are needed to find out what might be behind their results.
“A better understanding of this topic may lead to the development of interventions that effectively improve patient care.”
He added that, as a start, the difference between the salaries of female and male doctors should be eliminated so that more women choose the profession – as it seems that society would definitely benefit from this.
