Gender Differences in Patient Safety Incident Risk Among Early Career Resident Physicians: A Cross-Sectional Analysis

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Patient Safety
• Physician Well-being

Background:

• Previous studies indicate female physicians achieve better patient outcomes.
• The roles of workload and psychological burden in gender-based patient safety disparities are underexplored.
• Improving training environments for early-career physicians is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between physician gender and patient safety incidents.
• To explore the mediating roles of workload and psychological burden.
• To inform strategies for enhancing patient safety in residency programs.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional analysis of 6063 resident physicians from the 2022 General Medicine In-Training Examination in Japan.
• Serious patient safety incidents (deaths, serious adverse events from medical errors) collected via anonymous questionnaire.
• Multilevel logistic regression analyzed working conditions (hours, night shifts, burnout, co-worker disruption) and physician gender.

Main Results:

• Female residents had a lower risk of serious patient safety incidents (OR 0.71).
• Co-worker disruption mediated the association between gender and safety incidents.
• Males showed a U-shaped association between weekly hours and incidents; females exhibited a dose-response relationship, especially with ≥80 hours.

Conclusions:

• Female resident physicians experience fewer serious patient safety incidents.
• Reducing working hours is a potential strategy to prevent incidents among female residents.
• Further research into workload management and its impact on physician gender and patient safety is warranted.