Why female doctors may be better for older patients

According to a study from Harvard University, there’s evidence that elderly hospital patients are at a decreased risk for death when treated by female doctors.

In fact, the numbers were pretty astounding. If all doctors met the same standard as high-performing female doctors, there would be 32,000 fewer annual deaths among Medicare recipients.

Even among the researchers themselves, the large gap in mortality rates between the gender of the doctor was surprising. According to the study’s lead author, Yusuke Tsugawa of Harvard, “these findings indicate that potential differences in practice patterns between male and female physicians may have important clinical implications.”

Even more important, the sampling size was quite large. The research team analyzed data from across a spectrum of over 1.5 million Medicare patients in the United States. Of the total number, 620,000 were men and nearly a million were women. All of the study participants were over 65 years old and in the hospital.

Over the course of the study, which tracked these patients between the years of 2011 and 2014, the group was treated by 20,000 female and 60,000 male doctors. The study also took into account why the participant was hospitalized and what the severity of their condition was.

Notably, the research discovered that those who received treatment from a female doctor were 4 percent less likely to die after their visit. The same group also had a 5 percent lower risk of returning to the hospital within 30 days of their initial visit.

The researchers also inserted randomizers into the data, just in case there was a chance that female doctors were choosing or ending up with healthier individuals. Even with the randomizer, the data did not change.

Yet even with this information on hand, consider that female physicians comprise a mere one-third of all the physicians working today in the United States. Furthermore, they are often paid less and promoted less often. Perhaps with research like this, that may begin to change.