Health, Medical and Neuropsychology Unit, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Diabet Med. 2023 Aug;40(8):e15087. doi: 10.1111/dme.15087. Epub 2023 Mar 23.
Implicit gender biases (IGBs) are unconscious evaluations about a person based on gender. IGBs of healthcare providers may affect medical decision making. This study investigated whether IGBs and genders of patients and general practitioners (GPs) influence diagnostics and treatment decisions in the context of diabetes type 2.
Ninety-nine GPs participated in this randomized online study. Implicit Associations Tasks were used to measure two IGBs, related to lifestyle (women have a healthier lifestyle than men) and communication (men are less communicative than women). Clinical decisions regarding type 2 diabetes were measured with vignettes that included a fictional male or female patient case.
Female GPs exhibited a significant lifestyle IGB (p < 0.001). GPs of both genders exhibited a significant communication IGB (p < 0.001). Several associations between IGBs and clinical decisions were found. The gender of the vignette character affected several outcomes, for example GPs were less certain in the diabetes diagnosis when the character was a woman (p < 0.001).
We demonstrated that GPs have IGBs and these biases as well as patient's gender affect decisions of GP's when they are solving a diabetes vignette case. Future research is needed to understand the most important consequences of IGBs in the context of type 2 diabetes.
内隐性别偏见（IGB）是基于性别的对人的无意识评价。医疗保健提供者的 IGB 可能会影响医疗决策。本研究调查了 IGB 和患者及全科医生（GP）的性别是否会影响 2 型糖尿病背景下的诊断和治疗决策。
99 名全科医生参与了这项随机在线研究。使用内隐联想测验来衡量两种 IGB，与生活方式（女性比男性更健康的生活方式）和沟通（男性比女性更不健谈）有关。使用包括虚构的男性或女性患者病例的情景描述来衡量 2 型糖尿病的临床决策。
女性 GP 表现出明显的生活方式 IGB（p<0.001）。男女 GP 均表现出明显的沟通 IGB（p<0.001）。发现 IGB 与临床决策之间存在多种关联。情景描述中角色的性别影响了几个结果，例如当角色是女性时，GP 在糖尿病诊断方面的确定性较低（p<0.001）。
我们证明了全科医生存在 IGB，这些偏见以及患者的性别会影响 GP 在解决糖尿病情景案例时的决策。需要进一步研究以了解 IGB 在 2 型糖尿病背景下的重要后果。
