New research has found hospital patients are less likely to die if they are treated by a female doctor.
A study of 800,000 patients also suggested that women were less likely to be readmitted to hospital in the 30 days after discharge if they had seen a female physician.
Even though the study indicated patients generally showed a benefit from having a female physician, the greatest difference was seen in female patients.
Scientists from the University of California (UCLA) have theorised that the difference could be due to male doctors underestimating the severity of their female patients’ illnesses.
Female patients showing a mortality rate of 8.15 per cent with a female doctor and 8.38 per cent with a male physician
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Data for the study was taken from Medicare insurance claims in the United States between 2016 and 2019. The research included about 458,100 female and 319,800 male patients.
Associate professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Dr Yusuke Tsugawa said: "What our findings indicate is that female and male physicians practise medicine differently, and these differences have a meaningful impact on patient’s health outcomes.
"Further research on the underlying mechanisms linking physician gender with patient outcomes, and why the benefit of receiving the treatment from female physicians is larger for female patients, has the potential to improve patient outcomes across the board.
"It is important to note that female physicians provide high-quality care and, therefore, having more female physicians benefits patients from a societal point of view."
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Research suggested that female patients may be more comfortable engaging and sensitive with female doctors
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Female patients showed a mortality rate of 8.15 per cent with a female doctor and 8.38 per cent with a male physician. The mortality rate in men was higher overall but showed a smaller discrepancy, with 10.15 per cent of men dying within 30 days of discharge with a female doctor and 10.23 per cent with a male one.
Published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, the research found that female patients were less likely to be readmitted within 30 days if they had a female doctor, with 15.23 per cent of women with a female doctor being readmitted, compared with 16.71 per cent of women with a male physician.
The team suggested that the effect could also be due to female doctors communicating with their female patients better, ultimately leading to better diagnoses and treatment.
The scientists also suggested that female patients may be more comfortable engaging in detailed and sensitive conversations with doctors of the same gender. A previous study from 2018 found that the more experience men had in treating women, the better their statistics.
However, some doctors showed scepticism over the research, given it took existing data from Medicare claims.
Senior lecturer at Newcastle University Dr Gavin Stewart, who is unaffiliated with the study, said: "The use of a retrospective observational study design is a major limitation to this work. There is clearly potential for confounding.
"The conclusions should be treated with circumspection unless corroborated by further studies."