Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Original article

Vol. 149 No. 5152 (2019)

The glory of the age is the wisdom of grey hair: association of physician appearance with outcomes in hospitalised medical patients – an observational study

  • Andrea Haubitz-Eschelbach
  • Mirsada Durmisi
  • Sebastian Haubitz
  • Alexander Kutz
  • Beat Mueller
  • Jeffrey L. Greenwald
  • Philipp Schuetz
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4414/smw.2019.20162
Cite this as:
Swiss Med Wkly. 2019;149:w20162
Published
17.12.2019

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The physical appearance of a physician may influence patients’ perceptions of that physician’s quality of care. There is a lack of studies investigating whether physician appearance is indeed associated with patient satisfaction and mortality.

METHODS

This observational study included adult medical inpatients treated at a Swiss tertiary care hospital between 2013 and 2016. We investigated associations of gender and physician appearance (hair colour, wearing of glasses) with in-hospital mortality and perceived quality of care, assessed by a telephone interview 30 days after admission. Regression models were adjusted for patient age, patient gender, and the Charlson Comorbidity Index.

RESULTS

We included 18,259 inpatients treated by 494 different physicians during their hospital stay. We had full information regarding patient-perceived quality of care for 9917 patients. Overall, 860 patients (4.7%) died in the hospital and 1479 (14.9%) reported low satisfaction with their care. After multivariable adjustment, there was no difference in mortality or patient-perceived quality of care whether physicians did or did not wear glasses and whether they were male or female. The hair colour of residents was also not associated with outcomes. However, patients treated by grey-haired attending physicians, compared to those with dark or blond hair, had significantly lower in-hospital mortality (adjusted odds ratio 0.70, 95% confidence interval 0.53–0.92, p = 0.011).

CONCLUSIONS

This analysis suggests that physician gender or appearance has little influence on the quality of care provided to hospitalised medical patients. Whether the small but significant mortality benefit observed for grey-haired attending physicians is possibly confounded by age and physician experience clearly needs further investigation. Nevertheless, our analysis provides empirical evidence that having at least some grey-haired attending physicians in the medical physician team seems to be beneficial for patients, even if patients do not recognise the clear superiority of their care.

References

  1. Kaplan SH, Greenfield S, Ware JE, Jr. Assessing the effects of physician-patient interactions on the outcomes of chronic disease. Med Care. 1989;27(3, Suppl):S110–27. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1097/00005650-198903001-00010
  2. Hadjistavropoulos HD, Ross MA, von Baeyer CL. Are physicians’ ratings of pain affected by patients’ physical attractiveness? Soc Sci Med. 1990;31(1):69–72. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-9536(90)90011-G
  3. Tsugawa Y, Jena AB, Figueroa JF, Orav EJ, Blumenthal DM, Jha AK. Comparison of Hospital Mortality and Readmission Rates for Medicare Patients Treated by Male vs Female Physicians. JAMA Intern Med. 2017;177(2):206–13. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.7875
  4. Hunziker S. Female or Male Team Leader During Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation: Does It Really Matter? Crit Care Med. 2019;47(1):144–6. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003489
  5. Amacher SA, Schumacher C, Legeret C, Tschan F, Semmer NK, Marsch S, et al. Influence of Gender on the Performance of Cardiopulmonary Rescue Teams: A Randomized, Prospective Simulator Study. Crit Care Med. 2017;45(7):1184–91. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000002375
  6. Schuetz P, Hausfater P, Amin D, Amin A, Haubitz S, Faessler L, et al.; TRIAGE Study group. Biomarkers from distinct biological pathways improve early risk stratification in medical emergency patients: the multinational, prospective, observational TRIAGE study. Crit Care. 2015;19(1):377. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-015-1098-z
  7. Schuetz P, Hausfater P, Amin D, Haubitz S, Fässler L, Grolimund E, et al. Optimizing triage and hospitalization in adult general medical emergency patients: the triage project. BMC Emerg Med. 2013;13(1):12. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-227X-13-12
  8. Charlson ME, Pompei P, Ales KL, MacKenzie CR. A new method of classifying prognostic comorbidity in longitudinal studies: development and validation. J Chronic Dis. 1987;40(5):373–83. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9681(87)90171-8
  9. Thomas JB. Dumb Blondes, Dan Quayle, and Hillary Clinton: Gender, Sexuality, and Stupidity in Jokes. J Am Folkl. 1997;110(437):277–313. doi:.https://doi.org/10.2307/541162
  10. Swami V, Barrett S. British men’s hair color preferences: an assessment of courtship solicitation and stimulus ratings. Scand J Psychol. 2011;52(6):595–600. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9450.2011.00911.x
  11. McKelvie SJ. Perception of faces with and without spectacles. Percept Mot Skills. 1997;84(2):497–8. doi:.https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1997.84.2.497
  12. Terry RL, Stockton LA. Eyeglasses and children’s schemata. J Soc Psychol. 1993;133(4):425–38. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1993.9712166
  13. Aldrees T, Alsuhaibani R, Alqaryan S, Alzahrani H, Alharethy S, Alghunaim A, et al. Physicians’ attire. Parents preferences in a tertiary hospital. Saudi Med J. 2017;38(4):435–9. doi:.https://doi.org/10.15537/smj.2017.4.15853
  14. Cohen M, Jeanmonod D, Stankewicz H, Habeeb K, Berrios M, Jeanmonod R. An observational study of patients’ attitudes to tattoos and piercings on their physicians: the ART study. Emerg Med J. 2018;35(9):538–43. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2017-206887
  15. Swami V, Furnham A. Unattractive, promiscuous and heavy drinkers: perceptions of women with tattoos. Body Image. 2007;4(4):343–52. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2007.06.005
  16. Birkhäuer J, Gaab J, Kossowsky J, Hasler S, Krummenacher P, Werner C, et al. Trust in the health care professional and health outcome: A meta-analysis. PLoS One. 2017;12(2):e0170988. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0170988
  17. Marcum ZA, Hanlon JT, Murray MD. Improving Medication Adherence and Health Outcomes in Older Adults: An Evidence-Based Review of Randomized Controlled Trials. Drugs Aging. 2017;34(3):191–201. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-016-0433-7
  18. Glare P, Fridman I, Ashton-James CE. Choose Your Words Wisely: The Impact of Message Framing on Patients’ Responses to Treatment Advice. Int Rev Neurobiol. 2018;139:159–90. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irn.2018.07.020
  19. Jefferson L, Bloor K, Birks Y, Hewitt C, Bland M. Effect of physicians’ gender on communication and consultation length: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2013;18(4):242–8. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1177/1355819613486465
  20. Bertakis KD, Helms LJ, Callahan EJ, Azari R, Robbins JA. The influence of gender on physician practice style. Med Care. 1995;33(4):407–16. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1097/00005650-199504000-00007
  21. Roter DL, Hall JA. Physician gender and patient-centered communication: a critical review of empirical research. Annu Rev Public Health. 2004;25(1):497–519. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.25.101802.123134
  22. Roter DL, Hall JA, Aoki Y. Physician gender effects in medical communication: a meta-analytic review. JAMA. 2002;288(6):756–64. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.288.6.756
  23. Sagy I, Fuchs L, Mizrakli Y, Codish S, Politi L, Fink L, et al. The association between the patient and the physician genders and the likelihood of intensive care unit admission in hospital with restricted ICU bed capacity. QJM. 2018;111(5):287–94. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcy017
  24. Kim AM, Bae J, Kang S, Kim YY, Lee JS. Patient factors that affect trust in physicians: a cross-sectional study. BMC Fam Pract. 2018;19(1):187. doi:.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-018-0875-6
  25. https://www.elitereaders.com/countries-with-most-beautiful-women/15/. Accessed August 8th 2019.
  26. https://bigseventravel.com/2019/06/sexiest-nationality/ Accessed August 16th 2019.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 > >>