Health professionals' sex and attitudes of health science students to health claims

Introduction The huge influx of women into medicine may modify discriminatory attitudes towards health professionals. The aim of this study was to confirm the possible influence of health professionals' biological sex on the perception of the suitableness of health claims and on the attribution of responsibility in the case of presumed malpractice. Methods A total of 448 health science students, 123 of whom were male and 325 of whom were female, made up the sample. They represented 63% of students enrolled on their courses. They were asked to read a story about a fictitious event that results in a health claim. The story had 2 versions that differed only in the genders of the professionals involved. The students had to answer a 5‐point Likert scale questionnaire with 12 items, 7 of which referred to the pertinence of the claim, 2 to the responsibility of the medical staff, 1 to the responsibility of the nursing staff, 1 to the responsibility of the health authority and 1 to the responsibility of the hospital where the incident occurred. Each student judged only 1 of the 2 possible versions, which were randomly distributed. Almost all the students invited to collaborate did so. Group differences were assessed by 2‐way anova analysis. Results Significantly more responsibility was assigned to the male nurse than to the female nurse. Male students, but not female students, considered the claim more valid in version B. Conclusion These results show that, at least amongst our sample of health science students, negative prejudices towards female professionals do not exist.