PREVENTION ADVICE RATES OF WOMEN AND MEN PHYSICIANS

Background: As the number of women in medicine and the emphasis on pre vention and primary care increase in the United States, it is importan t to know the extent to which female and male physicians advise patien ts about prevention. It is also important to know whether any gender-b ased differences are attributable to women's higher rates of choosing primary care specialties. Prior studies have examined only small popul ations of physicians, limited physician specialties, or few prevention -related outcomes. Methods: Telephone survey from a systematic random sample of the Physician Masterfile maintained by the American Medical Association. One thousand US physicians (167 women and 833 men); a 48% response rate. Self-reported frequency with which physicians review p atients' health behaviors and initiate counseling about unhealthy beha viors. Results: Of the surveyed physicians, 44% stated that they alway s reviewed the patient health behaviors in question, and 36% usually s ystematically counseled patients when unhealthy behaviors were known. Female physicians were significantly more likely than were male physic ians to report systematic counseling about unhealthy behaviors (52% vs 37.8%, P<.001, chi(2)). We also analyzed our data by adjusting for ag e and including only family and general physicians and internists. Aft er these adjustments, gender-based differences remained in the directi on of female physicians being more likely than male physicians to repo rt reviewing patients' health practices and providing systematic couns eling, although these differences no longer reached statistical signif icance. Gender-related differences were greatest for more sensitive be haviors tie, drug use and sexual behaviors). Primary care physicians w ere more likely than other physicians to review and counsel patients a bout health behaviors. This specialty-based difference was more signif icant among male than among female physicians. Conclusions: In this ra ndom sample, although all physicians counseled patients inconsistently about prevention, female physicians reported systematically counselin g patients more than did male physicians, and primary care physicians reviewed and counseled more often than did physicians in other special ties.