Doctor’s Gender Affects Patient’s Chance Of Survival, Harvard Study Says

In any hospital anywhere around the world, there would be either a female or male doctor who would attend to a patient’s needs. Some would prefer a male doctor and some prefer a female doctor. Sometimes patients are able to choose their attending physicians but at most times, they can’t.

Harvard School Of Public Health, Doctor’s Gender Affects Patient’s Health

According to a report by CBC, the doctor’s gender could actually affect a patient’s health and the chance of survival. This is based on a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

The report further mentioned that researchers from Harvard School of Public Health took a look at data from more than 1.5 million hospital visits. These patients were suffering from illnesses like pneumonia, heart failure, intestinal bleeding, lung disease and urinary infections between 2011 and 2014.

Patients Treated By Female Doctors Have Higher Chance Of Survival

The study showed 11.1 percent of patients treated by female doctors died within the first month compared to 11.5 percent of those treated by male doctors. Patients who were attended by female doctors had higher chances of leaving the hospital alive than those attended by male physicians.

Although the difference is not that big, Calgary urgent care physician Dr. Raj Bhardwaj in the report said, “…if you take the three million or so hospital admissions [in Canada] every year and you can drop deaths by about half a per cent overall — that would be about 12,000 deaths we could avoid.”

This study also shows patients treated by women had less chances of being readmitted to the hospital within the first month of being discharged.

Featured Photo Source: Darko Stojanovic (Pixabay)

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