--- title: 'Objective Data Reveals Gender Preferences for Patients’ PCP' type: 'lecture' url: 'https://doc.social/lectures/objective-data-reveals-gender-preferences-for-patients-pcp' published: '2020-12-10' author: 'Madelinn Fink' transcript: 'yes' --- # Objective Data Reveals Gender Preferences for Patients’ PCP ## Summary Patients in the United States have significant autonomy when choosing their primary care physician, and he population of physicians has become more diverse, with increasing female providers and providers of different races. Most studies investigating patient preferences for gender of their PCP are based on self-reported data and indicate that female patients are more often than males to have a same-gender preference for their PCP. Because self-reported preferences may not reflect true preferences, we analyzed objective data to determine patients’ preferences for PCP’s gender. Our data indicated that both male and female patients are more-likely to request and see a same-gender PCP, and this preference is more pronounced in males than females. ## Transcript 717 words · 5 min · automatically transcribed (aws-transcribe) and not checked by a person; it may contain errors, particularly in names, drugs and dosages. The recording is the source. [0:01] My name is Madeleine Fink and I'm a fourth-year medical student at Louisiana State University in New Orleans, and here to present how objective data reveals gender preferences for patient's Primary care physician. I'd like to thank my co-authors for their guidance and support throughout this process. [0:17] The objectives for this talk are to describe the project, including overall objective and results, discuss the methods used, explain the key findings, and finally discuss conclusions drawn from this project. [0:31] Patients in the United States have significant autonomy when choosing their Primary care physician. The population of physicians in the US has become more diverse with increasing numbers of female providers and providers of different races. Most studies investigating patient preferences for gender of their Primary care physician are based on self-reported data. Most studies indicate that female patients are more often than males to have a same gender preference for their Primary care physician. [1:00] Because self-reported preferences may not reflect true preferences, we analyzed objective data to determine patient's preferences for their Primary care physician's gender. Our data indicated that both male and female patients are more likely to request and see a same gender Primary care physician. This preference is more pronounced in males than females. [1:23] This is a retrospective review of new patients of 13 Primary care physicians within the LSU-based healthcare system. 2,192 new patients were seen from January 1st to December 31st of 2017 and were included in this study. New patients were asked about their Primary care physician gender preference when scheduling. We compared by Primary care physician gender the expected prevalence, which is defined as the proportion of males and females in the overall patient population. [1:52] With the observed prevalence, which is defined as the gender distribution of patients for each Primary care physician. A mixed model with Primary care physician as a random effect examined the odds of male and female patients being assigned the same gender physician. [2:08] We assume the expected and observed gender prevalence will match if there is no influence by Primary care physician gender. [2:16] 2,192 new patients were included in this study. 65% or 1,427 were female, and 35% or 765 were male. Average patient age was 50 years old, ranging from 18 to 92 years old. These patients were seen by one of 13 Primary care physicians. 11 Primary care physicians were female or 84.6%, and 2 were male or 15.2%. [2:43] Each provider saw an average of 169 new patients. [2:50] Here, we look at the distribution of patients who saw female providers. We expected 65% of the female provider new patient population to be female. What we observed was 72% of the female providers new patient population was female, with a 95% confidence interval of 67.6 to 76%. [3:11] We expected 35% of the female provider new patient population to be male, but observed that 28% of the population was male with a 95% confidence interval of 24 to 32.4%. Neither confidence interval contains the expected prevalence of female or male patients. [3:33] Here, we look at the distribution of patients who saw male providers. Again, we expected 65% of the male provider new patient population to be female. We observed 40.3% of the male provider new patient population was female with a 95% confidence interval of 30.5 to 51%. [3:53] We expected 35% of the male provider new patient population to be male patients, but we observed that 59.9% of the population was male with a 95% confidence interval of 49 to 69.5%. Again, neither confidence interval here is containing the expected prevalence of female or male patients. [4:18] The observed prevalence of new male patients among male providers was 24.8% points higher than expected and 6.9% points lower than expected with female providers. Male Primary care physicians were 3.8 times more likely to see new male patients compared with female Primary care physicians. [4:40] For both the male and female provider new patient populations, we observed that more male patients saw male providers and more female patients saw female providers than expected. [4:51] The preference for same gender Primary care physician was more pronounced in male patients. [4:56] This is a retrospective study. While all patients were asked their preference for Primary care physician gender when scheduling, we were not able to ascertain the reasoning behind their choice. Further Research is needed to clarify the basis for patients Primary care physician gender preferences and to establish the relationship between patients' gender preferences and health outcomes. [5:18] Thank you.