Patient gender and communication with physicians: results of a community-based study

An observational study of 648 routine medical visits with 69 physicians examined patient gender in relation to patient and physician communication, patient preference for the physician's communication style, patient satisfaction, and the physician's awareness of the patient's satisfaction. Data consisted of audiotapes as well as patient and physician questionnaires. Women appeared to be more actively engaged in the talk of medical visits--they sent and received more emotionally charged talk and were judged by independent raters as more anxious and interested both globally and in terms of voice quality than men. Consistent with the more emotional talk, women reported preferring a more "feeling-oriented" physician than male patients did. Mean levels of satisfaction with communication did not differ by gender, and communication predictors of satisfaction were similar for male and female patients, although they were stronger for male patients. Physicians were significantly less aware of some aspects of female patients' satisfaction compared to male patients' satisfaction. In light of the weaker correlations between patients' communication and their satisfaction for women, we suggest that women provided fewer obvious cues to their satisfaction. Training in communication skills may increase open discussion about feelings and emotions and may also produce greater physician sensitivity to patients' satisfaction, particularly with female patients.