|
 The research also found that patients, regardless of gender, more
readily tuned into advice about nutrition and exercise from female
physicians.
Dr. Anne-Cecile Schieber, from the University of Toulouse III in
Toulouse, France, led a team that examined how gender influenced the
relationship between 585 patients and 27 general-practice doctors in
three regions in France.
The researchers hypothesized that patients might be more inclined to
trust doctors of the same gender. But the findings indicate that
interpersonal skills may play more of a role than gender in
promoting physician-patient trust.
“We think it’s more about communications training then it is about
hiring practices,” research scientist Julie Schmittdiel told Reuters
Health. “It’s not about gender so much as it’s about communication
and enhancing communication.”
Schmittdiel has done similar studies for the Kaiser Permanente
Northern California Division of Research. She was not involved with
the current analysis.
The new study suggests that some male doctors could learn a thing or
two from female physicians, at least when it comes to dispensing
advice on nutrition and exercise.
Researchers independently asked adult patients and their doctors the
same set of questions immediately after office visits. Questions
included information and advice given about weight, physical
activity and nutrition.
Female doctors and both their male and female patients tended to
agree about the advice on nutrition, exercise and weight-loss,
according to the study published in Family Practice.
Men with male doctors were nearly four times more likely than men
with female doctors to disagree with them about nutrition, the study
found. And men with male doctors were twice as likely to disagree
with them as with female doctors about exercise, the researchers
found.
The only place where male doctors performed as well as their female
colleagues was in counseling about weight loss with male patients.
Regardless of the gender of the physician, 91 percent of male
patients agreed with their doctors on weight-loss advice, the study
found.
Female patients with female doctors agreed with their physician’s
weight-loss advice 93 percent of the time. But female patients with
male doctors agreed only 85.5 percent of the time, the study says.
[to top of second column] |
“Training medical students and doctors on delivering information,
showing respect, supporting patient involvement, gaining social and
cultural competence, supporting self-reflection and self-awareness,
and developing skills, capacities and capabilities to perceive
existing gender differences and on incorporating these into their
decisions and actions could help them to provide higher quality of
care to each patient, irrespective of their gender,” the study
concludes.
Based on prior research, the authors suggest that female doctors may
be more collaborative with patients, and male doctors may be more
dominant.
Earlier studies have shown that women doctors report feeling more
comfortable discussing personal and sensitive issues than their male
counterparts do, the authors write. They say previous studies also
found that women physicians are more likely to involve patients in
decision-making and to consult in a warmer, more patient-centered
manner.
“Clearly, we all bring our backgrounds and social context with us
into physician visits with us – whether we’re the patient or the
provider, or whether we’re men or women – and that can affect the
outcome of the visit,” Schmittdiel said.
“Enhancing the physicians’ ability to communicate effectively can
make a more productive visit and lead to improved outcomes,” she
said.
Schieber was unable to respond to a request for comment by deadline.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1sLm0zV Family Practice, online September 11,
2014.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
