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 As a sick kid, I always preferred my mother’s approach to caregiving to my father’s approach. My father was no less loving of a parent than my mother, but his reaction to illness usually followed a dramatic template of gagging, visible disgust, and an eventual mirroring of our symptoms.
So, it came as no surprise to me that, according to a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, female doctors had higher patient survival rates than male doctors in the United States.
The study analyzed the results from Medicare patients treated by 58,344 physicians between 2011 and 2014. The results: The risk of premature death for patients of female doctors (10.82%) was less than the risk for those of male doctors (11.49%). The risk of being readmitted into the hospital within thirty days of an initial admission was also lower for patients of female doctors (15.01%) than patients of male doctors (15.57%).
According to researchers, if this trend held for non-Medicare patients, the disparity would be even more significant, estimating that 32,000 fewer patients would die “if male physicians could achieve the same outcomes as female physicians every year.”
What is the explanation for the difference in numbers? While researchers couldn’t conclusively determine a reason for the disparity, they offered up a few possible explanations.
Ultimately, it was determined that women and men practice medicine differently, with women more likely adhering to clinical guidelines and counseling patients on preventive care and ordering preventive tests (pap smears, mammograms, etc.). Another theory is that overall, women are better communicators.
Another thought behind the findings includes a theory that healthier patients prefer female doctors.
While the study’s findings make intuitive sense (females being more nurturing, etc.), the study failed to take into account that, often, patients are treated by teams of doctors, both male and female.
Regardless of the findings, the researchers advise against oversimplifying the matter by going out and choosing a provider based solely on gender.
Do you have a gender preference when you are seeking medical treatment?
Image credit:
Day Donaldson / CC BY-SA 2.0
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