Elderly Patients Fare Better With Women Docs: Study

A new Harvard study has found that elderly hospitalised patients who are treated by female doctors are less likely to die within 30 days of discharge, than those cared for by male researchers.

The study indicated that if male doctors could achieve the same outcomes as female doctors, there would be 32,000 fewer deaths per year.

The study’s lead author, Yuskuke Tsugawa, said that gender is most significant for the sickest of  patients. The study shows that the differences in the way male and female physicians practise, has important clinical implications.

The study looked at more than a million Medicare patients in the US, from the age of 65 onwards, who had been hospitalised with a medical condition, between 2011 and 2014. If treated by a female physician, patients had a 4 per cent lower relative risk of dying prematurely, and a 5 per cent lower relative risk of being readmitted to a hospital within 30 days.  And this association was seen across a wide variety of conditions, and across a variety in the severity of illness.

This, and other studies have documented how male and female physicians practise medicine differently. Women are more likely to follow clinical guidelines and communicate more with their patients.

The authors of the study also wrote about how women take a different approach to problem solving. “Men may be less deliberate in their approach to solving complex problems. Perhaps women are more likely to stick to the books when treating complicated conditions, or to talk things through with their peers when necessary.”

"We need to understand why female physicians have lower mortality so that all patients can have the best possible outcomes, irrespective of the gender of their physician,” said Ashish Jha, K.T. Li Professor of Health Policy and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute

According to the press release Harvard University put out, women are only one-third of the physician work force in the US. Professor Jha says that women are less likely to be promoted, and are generally paid less.

Also Read: More Rural Women Accessing Public Hospitals: Study