Women Treated by Female Doctors Have Lower Mortality Rates

April 23, 2024

GENDER SENSITIVITY IN MEDICINE

Women Treated by Female Doctors Have Lower Mortality Rates

Women may benefit from seeing a female doctor for specific illnesses. The differences are slight but significant.

Reviewed by Mark Zuleger-Thyss

Female doctors may communicate more effectively with their patients than male doctors

Older women who are treated in hospitals by a female doctor instead of a male doctor have lower mortality rates for certain diseases. This difference is the conclusion reached by a Japanese study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. A German expert considers the observed results to be small, but the speculations listed about the reasons for the differences are plausible.

For their study, the research group from the University of Tokyo analyzed data from more than 700,000 hospitalized patients aged 65 and over between 2016 and 2019. Of the total number of patients, women (31 percent) and men (30 percent) had female doctors.

The study found mortality rates within 30 days of treatment were slightly lower among women treated by female doctors, particularly for nervous system diseases such as dementia. In addition, women were less likely to return to the clinic again for kidney and urinary tract diseases if female doctors had treated them. Conversely, men showed no significant differences, regardless of the gender of the doctor who treated them.

Overall, the mortality rate for female patients was 8.15 percent when treated by a female doctor, compared to 8.38 percent when treated by a male doctor—a difference that was small but clinically significant, the study authors wrote.

Gender Diversity in the Medical Profession Must Improve

The research team speculated that doctors may be underestimating the severity of specific diseases in women, which could lead to delays in treatment. In addition, female doctors can communicate more effectively with their patients, focusing more on them and their concerns. Finally, women might speak more openly to female doctors about shameful topics.

According to Ute Seeland, who holds Germany's first professorship for gender-sensitive medicine and prevention at a university outpatient clinic at the University of Magdeburg, there is evidence in the literature for these three assumptions. However, given the study's design, it cannot answer why women benefit from treatment by female doctors. Overall, the effects described in the work are only minor.

In addition, the study cannot clarify whether women benefit from treatment by female doctors or whether other related factors play a role.

The authors' results underline the need to improve gender diversity in the medical profession further—a conclusion that Doctor Seeland agrees with. She also supports the call for more research to better address the differences.

Seeland says data on the topic is scarce in Germany. She concludes, “The study is not a milestone for gender-sensitive medicine, but it joins a growing number of works on this complex topic.”

Summary

Older women who are treated in hospitals by a female doctor instead of a male doctor have lower mortality rates for certain diseases.

One study found mortality rates within 30 days of treatment were slightly lower among women treated by female doctors, particularly for nervous system diseases such as dementia. Women were less likely to return to the clinic again for kidney and urinary tract diseases if female doctors had treated them.

The study authors wrote that this difference in mortality rates was small but clinically significant. Given the study's design, it cannot answer why women benefit from treatment by female doctors.

The study cannot clarify whether women benefit from treatment by female doctors or whether other related factors play a role.

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