title: Physician gender and patient centered communication: the moderating effect of psychosocial and biomedical case characteristics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Female physicians have a more patient-centered communication style than their male counterparts; however, few studies have investigated how the biomedical or psychosocial nature of a patient diagnosis might moderate this relationship.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy six 3rd year residents (50 male and 26 females) seeking board certification from the Korean Academy of Family Medicine participated in the 2013 Clinical Practice Examination by conducting two simulated patient (SP) interviews, one presenting a largely psychosocial case and the other largely biomedical. The interview recordings were coded with the Roter Interaction Analysis System (RIAS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Female physicians and their SPs engaged in more dialog than male physicians in both cases. Female physicians were more patient-centered than males for the psychosocial case (t = -3.24, P < 0.05), however, their scores did not differ for the biomedical case. In multivariate analysis, a significant interaction between physician gender and case (z = -3.90, P < 0.001) similarly demonstrated greater female patient-centeredness only for the predominantly psychosocial case.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Case characteristics moderated the association between physician gender and patient-centeredness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Case characteristics need to be considered in future research on the association of physician gender and the patient-centered communication, as well as in the tailoring of physician communication training.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine & Health Promotion Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Laboratory of Health Promotion and Health Behavior, Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: dwshin.snuh@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Dong Wook
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Health, Behavior, and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA. Electronic address: droter@jhsph.edu.
authors.forename: Debra L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Roter
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital, College of Medicine, Hallym University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: rohyk@hallym.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Yong Kyun
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Roh
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine & Health Promotion Center, KEPCO Medical Center, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hahmsang@naver.com.
authors.forename: Sang Keun
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hahm
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine & Health Promotion Center, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Laboratory of Health Promotion and Health Behavior, Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul National University Hospital, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: belong@snu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: BeLong
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Hanyang University Medical Center, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea; Department of Medical Education, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hoonkp@hanyang.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hoon-Ki
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004645:Empathy; D005194:Family Practice; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D016544:Patient Simulation; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians; D056910:Republic of Korea; D012938:Social Perception; D013637:Tape Recording
keywords: Patient-centeredness; Patient–physician communication; Physician gender; RIAS