A longitudinal study of sex differences in how physicians relate to dying patients

The authors were interested in whether or not there were sex differences in the way physicians respond to the needs of dying patients and their families at the time they graduate from medical school versus ten years later. A 71% return rate was received from a questionnaire mailed in 1976 to 1,540 graduates of five selected medical schools; the return rate for the follow-up study in 1986 was 58%. Ten percent of the respondents were female. The 1976 findings provided some evidence to support the argument that there are differences between male and female physicians' attitudes toward dying patients soon after graduation. The 1986 data, gathered after a decade of practicing medicine, showed even more striking differences. Perhaps "feminine characteristics" lend themselves to better communication with dying patients and their families than "masculine traits" do.