Gender differences in the demand for quality-related information on health care providers

Information on health care providers' quality enables patients to make an informed quality-oriented choice. For this purpose, the information should meet the demand of patients. Since it remains unexplained whether differences exist between men and women in this connection, the aim of our study was to analyze the demand for quality-related information in relation to gender. In the framework of the so called Health Monitor Survey of the Bertelsmann Foundation we surveyed a representative sample of 1,523 German adults about their demand for quality-related information on health care providers. We performed a multivariate analysis of the responses by considering age, socioeconomic status, recent experiences with or occupation in the health care system, and gender as independent variables. The results showed that among all sociodemographic variables considered, gender exerted the strongest influence on the responses. Women in comparison to men expressed a higher demand for quality-related information on health care providers, chose health care providers differently to some extent, and rated a multiplicity of criteria used to make a quality-oriented choice of hospitals more important than men. Thus, the publication of quality-related information on health care providers should be performed gender sensitive.