DO PATIENTS VIEW MALE AND FEMALE DOCTORS DIFFERENTLY?

Abstract

Background: This study was a patient survey of attitudes towards the gender of their physicians
generally and in medical specialties at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital.
Objective: To determine if patients view male and female doctors differently and the factors that
govern these views.
Design: It was a survey of all consenting adult patients with the ability to make independent
decisions.
Setting: The University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria.
Subjects: A hundred patients admitted in a tertiary hospital after appropriate ethical committee
approvals and patients consent were studied.
Main outcome measures: Hypothesis to test if there is gender bias by patients to doctors attending
to them was raised.
Results: Fifty three percent of the hundred patients studied cared about the gender of the attending
doctor, that is, showed gender bias with 42 % of them preferring male doctors to attend to them and
11% preferring female doctors to attend to them. The respondents who favoured male doctors based
their preference on better style of practice and communication of male doctors. Forty seven per
cent showed no gender bias, reasoning that they both possessed the same professional knowledge
and were equally competent. Preferences for specifi c medical specialties including anaesthesia
and surgery followed same pattern except in obstetrics and gynaecology and paediatrics. The
associations raised to the hypothesis are in details in the text.
Conclusion: There is a need to improve awareness about the capabilities of female doctors, including
anaesthesiologists, by relevant seminars and females incursing into male dominated specialties such
as surgery. Female doctors should also improve on their communication and style of practice.