Hospitalized women are less likely to die or be readmitted to the hospital if they are treated by female doctors, a study published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.
In the study of people ages 65 and older, 8.15% of women treated by female physicians died within 30 days, compared with 8.38% of women treated by male physicians.
Although the difference between the two groups seems small, the researchers say erasing the gap could save 5,000 women’s lives each year.
The study included nearly 800,000 male and female patients hospitalized from 2016 through 2019. All patients were covered by Medicare. For male hospitalized patients, the gender of the doctor didn’t appear to have an effect on risk of death or hospital readmission.
The data alone doesn’t explain why women fare better when treated by other women. But other studies suggest that women are less likely to experience “miscommunication, misunderstanding and bias” when treated by female doctors, said lead study author Dr. Atsushi Miyawaki, a senior assistant professor of health services research at the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine.
“Our pain and our symptoms are often dismissed,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, dean of the Yale School of Public Health. “It may be that women physicians are more aware of that and are more empathetic.”
Research shows that women are less likely than men to receive intensive care but more likely to report having negative experiences with health care, having their concerns dismissed, and having their heart or pain symptoms ignored, the authors wrote in the new study. Male physicians are also more likely than female doctors to underestimate women’s risk of stroke.
Part of the problem, Miyawaki said, is that medical students get “limited training in women’s health issues.”
“There is a tendency for doctors to harbor sexist stereotypes about women, regardless of age, such as the notion that women’s symptoms are more emotional or their pain is less severe or more psychological in origin,” said Wyatt, former chief science and chief medical officer at the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, a nonprofit research and advocacy group.
Women seem to experience fewer of these problems when treated by other women.
For example, a study published JAMA Surgery in 2021 found that women patients developed fewer complications if their surgeon was female. Another JAMA Surgery study published in 2023 found all patients had fewer complications and shorter hospital stays if they were operated on by female surgeons, who worked more slowly than their male counterparts.
Women primary care doctors also tend to spend more time with their patients, Ranney said. Although that extra attention is great for patients, it also means that women see fewer patients per day and earn less, on average, than male doctors.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said several studies suggest that female doctors follow medical evidence and guidelines, and that their patients have better outcomes.
“There’s lots of variation between women and men physicians,” said Jha, who was not involved in the new study. Women “tend to be better at communication, listening to patients, speaking openly. Patients report that communication is better. You put these things together, and you can understand why there are small but important differences.”
Global News