The role of general practitioner (GP) gender on women’s sense of health autonomy and wellbeing

Abstract

The study aims to explore the differences in women’s sense of health autonomy and wellbeing based on their GP’s gender, it also looks at the association of health autonomy and wellbeing. Design is quantitative survey-based using non-probability snowball sampling methods of Irish females of 18+ years (N=174). The measures used were the Health Care Climate Questionnaire (Williams et al., 1996), Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clark, & Teilegen, 1988), 5-Item Well-Being 5 Item (WHO, 1998) and General Self-Efficacy scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995). Results found that there was not a significant difference in health autonomy between GP gender groups, however, there was a significant difference in wellbeing between the groups. Wellbeing was shown to predict health autonomy. Additionally, the 51 – 65 age group showed significantly higher levels of mental health wellbeing. The findings support building medical practitioners’ health autonomy skills and for further research on GP-patient gender concordance.