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General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices
OBJECTIVES: The acceleration in the number of female doctors has led to questions about differences in how men and women practice medicine. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of general practitioner (GP) gender on the use of the three main categories of diagnostic procedures—clinical...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BMJ Publishing Group
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9083381/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35523487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054486 |
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author | Bouissiere, Amandine Laperrouse, Marine Panjo, Henri Ringa, Virginie Rigal, Laurent Letrilliart, Laurent |
author_facet | Bouissiere, Amandine Laperrouse, Marine Panjo, Henri Ringa, Virginie Rigal, Laurent Letrilliart, Laurent |
author_sort | Bouissiere, Amandine |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVES: The acceleration in the number of female doctors has led to questions about differences in how men and women practice medicine. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of general practitioner (GP) gender on the use of the three main categories of diagnostic procedures—clinical examinations, laboratory tests and imaging investigations. DESIGN: Cross-sectional nationwide multicentre study. SETTING: French training general practices. PARTICIPANTS: The patient sample included all the voluntary patients over a cumulative period of 5 days per office between November 2011 and April 2012. The GP sample included 85 males and 43 females. METHODS: 54 interns in general practice, observing their GP supervisors, collected data about the characteristics of GPs and consultations, as well as the health problems managed during the visit and the processes of care associated with them. Using hierarchical multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression models, we performed multivariable analyses to assess differences in each of the three main categories of diagnostic procedures, and two specific multivariable analyses for each category, distinguishing screening from diagnostic or follow-up procedures. We searched for interactions between GP gender and patient gender or type of health problem managed. RESULTS: This analysis of 45 582 health problems managed in 20 613 consultations showed that female GPs performed more clinical examinations than male GPs, both for screening (OR 1.75; 95% CI 1.19 to 2.58) and for diagnostic or follow-up purposes (OR 1.41; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.84). Female GPs also ordered laboratory tests for diagnostic or follow-up purposes more frequently (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.43). Female GPs performed even more clinical examinations than male GPs to diagnose or follow-up injuries (OR 1.69; 95% CI 1.19 to 2.40). CONCLUSION: Further research on the appropriateness of diagnostic procedures is required to determine to what extent these differences are related to underuse or overuse. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9083381 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-90833812022-05-20 General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices Bouissiere, Amandine Laperrouse, Marine Panjo, Henri Ringa, Virginie Rigal, Laurent Letrilliart, Laurent BMJ Open General practice / Family practice OBJECTIVES: The acceleration in the number of female doctors has led to questions about differences in how men and women practice medicine. The aim of this study was to assess the influence of general practitioner (GP) gender on the use of the three main categories of diagnostic procedures—clinical examinations, laboratory tests and imaging investigations. DESIGN: Cross-sectional nationwide multicentre study. SETTING: French training general practices. PARTICIPANTS: The patient sample included all the voluntary patients over a cumulative period of 5 days per office between November 2011 and April 2012. The GP sample included 85 males and 43 females. METHODS: 54 interns in general practice, observing their GP supervisors, collected data about the characteristics of GPs and consultations, as well as the health problems managed during the visit and the processes of care associated with them. Using hierarchical multilevel mixed-effect logistic regression models, we performed multivariable analyses to assess differences in each of the three main categories of diagnostic procedures, and two specific multivariable analyses for each category, distinguishing screening from diagnostic or follow-up procedures. We searched for interactions between GP gender and patient gender or type of health problem managed. RESULTS: This analysis of 45 582 health problems managed in 20 613 consultations showed that female GPs performed more clinical examinations than male GPs, both for screening (OR 1.75; 95% CI 1.19 to 2.58) and for diagnostic or follow-up purposes (OR 1.41; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.84). Female GPs also ordered laboratory tests for diagnostic or follow-up purposes more frequently (OR 1.21; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.43). Female GPs performed even more clinical examinations than male GPs to diagnose or follow-up injuries (OR 1.69; 95% CI 1.19 to 2.40). CONCLUSION: Further research on the appropriateness of diagnostic procedures is required to determine to what extent these differences are related to underuse or overuse. BMJ Publishing Group 2022-05-06 /pmc/articles/PMC9083381/ /pubmed/35523487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054486 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | General practice / Family practice Bouissiere, Amandine Laperrouse, Marine Panjo, Henri Ringa, Virginie Rigal, Laurent Letrilliart, Laurent General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices |
title | General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices |
title_full | General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices |
title_fullStr | General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices |
title_full_unstemmed | General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices |
title_short | General practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a French cross-sectional study in training practices |
title_sort | general practitioner gender and use of diagnostic procedures: a french cross-sectional study in training practices |
topic | General practice / Family practice |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9083381/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35523487 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054486 |
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