Are female physicians as trusted as their male colleagues? A cross-sectional study

Trust is the cornerstone of the patient–physician relationship. Many studies have addressed factors that could affect this relationship, yet only few have explored its association with the physician’s gender. The aim of this study is to assess the extent of trust in female physicians among the Lebanese population as compared with their male colleagues.

This is a cross-sectional study involving 517 individuals who had visited a physician within the previous 2 weeks. Respondents were interviewed in pharmacies. Pharmacies were selected by systematic random sampling and stratified by Lebanese governorates. The questionnaire included a validated tool to assess the level of trust in the visited physician.

According to the Trust in Physician Scale score, the level of trust in physicians appeared not to be affected by the physicians’ gender (p-value = 0.4). Other respondent-related social factors such as higher education, working in the field of health, and initial medical encounters were significantly associated with lower levels of trust in physicians, regardless of their gender (p-value < 0.05). Respondents trusted female physicians the least in the fields of Cardiology, Orthopedics, and Urology.

There is no significant association between the gender of physicians and the level of the Lebanese population’s trust in them. Nonetheless, some medical specialties are still perceived as male- or female-predominant.