Provider and Patient Gender Influence on Timing of Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders in Hospitalized Patients with Cancer

End-of-life decisions and advance directives require timely physician-patient discussions but barriers exist to these discussions.

To evaluate the influence of physician and patient gender on the timing of inpatient do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders.

Retrospective cohort study.

All adult patients (≥18 years) with cancer who received inpatient DNR orders at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center between January 2011 and December 2013.

Gender interaction between physicians and patients towards timing of the DNR order.

We identified 4,157 unique patients with a cancer diagnosis. These patients were treated by 353 physicians, of whom 123 (34.8%) were females and 230 (65.2%) were males. Multivariate analysis showed female patients were 1.3 times more likely to have early DNR orders written during hospital admission than were male patients (odds ratio [OR] 1.27; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.07-1.50). When comparing gender interaction between physicians and patients, our results showed that female physicians were 1.5 times more likely to write early DNR orders with their female patients than for their male patients (OR, 1.48; 95% CI, 1.13-1.94). Same gender physician-patient dyads were not found between male physician and their patients (OR, 1.09; 95% CI, 0.91-1.31). Higher age, more comorbid conditions, and progression of diseases were also associated with early DNR orders (all p < 0.01).

Female patients are more likely to receive early DNR orders from their female physicians. Gender and gender interaction between physician and patients may potentially influence the timing of receiving DNR order.