Study Reveals Patients Benefit More with Female Doctors — More Particularly Female Patients

A recent study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine revealed that patients experience lower mortality and readmission rates when treated by female physicians, and the benefit of receiving treatments from female physicians is larger for females than for male patients.

Past studies on sex disparities in healthcare have shown that women often receive less intensive care, face delayed diagnoses and have negative patient experiences compared to men.

In addition, female patients are more likely to have their concerns overlooked and experience discrimination, with their symptoms underestimated, the Annals of Internal Medicine Study revealed.

Further research also suggests that treatment by female physicians improves communication and relationships, particularly for female patients.

Understanding how physician sex contributes to these disparities is crucial as evidence on the impact of physician sex on clinical outcomes remains limited, especially around patient sex.

Researchers of the Annals of Internal Medicine study investigated this gap using a random sample of Medicare beneficiaries to ensure unbiased results.

The retrospective observational study conducted on patients aged 65 or older hospitalized between 2016 and 2019 and treated by hospitalists were monitored based on 30-day mortality and readmission rates.

Out of 458,108 female and 318,819 male patients, 31.1% and 30.6%, were treated by female physicians.

Both genders experienced lower mortality with female physicians, but the benefit was more common for female patients, data found.

Female patients treated by female physicians showed a difference in mortality rates compared to males (adjusted mortality rates, 8.15% vs. 8.38%). Male patients did not show a significant difference between female and male physicians (10.15% vs. 10.23%). The pattern was similar for readmission rates.

Researchers of the study suggest that the disparities in mortality rates between female and male physicians among female patients can be partially due to a combination of receiving care from a female physician and the interaction between patient sex and treatment by female physicians.

This result is possibly due to male physicians underestimating illness severity among female patients and female physicians providing more patient-centered communication and alleviating discomfort during examinations, authors suggest.

Though there are a few differences, the study's findings display clinically meaningful outcomes given the large number of Medicare hospitalizations annually.

Compared to previous studies, this study’s finding aligns with prior research indicating that treatment by female physicians leads to better outcomes, particularly for female patients.