Does the Age of Your Doctor Affect the Care You’re Getting?

May 21, 2017 by Justin Vict

Some people swear that younger doctors are inexperienced and would provide lower quality healthcare than older doctors. Such an assumption isn’t fair to young, skilled doctors who’ve graduated with all kinds of accolades. Ironically, new research shows that acting on this assumption could be slightly dangerous.

Have your parents ever become anxious when bringing you to a new doctor when you were younger? Did they make hushed comments about the doctor’s age? Or perhaps you yourself feel uncomfortable when being seen by a doctor in their 20s or 30s and have doubts about their skill. If you choose older doctors on purpose, it may actually be harmful to your health.

Researchers discovered that patients of older doctors have a higher mortality rate. They studied over 700,000 patients and their 19,000 doctors for 4 years. They found that patients whose doctors were under 40 years old had a 10.8 percent risk of dying within the first month after seeing their new doctor. But patients whose new doctor was between 40 and 49, their risk of dying within the first 30 days was 11.1 percent. The risk kept going up with the new doctor’s age – it was 11.3 percent for a doctor between 50 to 59, and 12.1 percent for a doctor 60 and up.

Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa, the lead researcher, says that the results shouldn’t be interpreted directly. He says you can’t conclude that young doctors are better than older doctors. There are many factors that need to be studied further, given the fact that all the patients in the study were elderly.

He does suggest that the disparities in mortality rates could be explained by continuing training. Younger doctors are more up-to-date with medical advances and better procedures. Older doctors may be using stale medical knowledge because they’re not required to keep up with new medical developments until they’ve been officially incorporated into the medical guidelines. The problem is, most medical guidelines are only updated every 5 to 10 years.

Does this mean you should choose a younger doctor when switching doctors? Not always. You should choose your doctor based on his skill and history of expertise. Good doctors stay up-to-date regardless of their age, which is why a great track record means they’re most likely staying current with new advances.

Choosing a new doctor can be difficult and daunting. But if you do your research on your potential choices, you can easily rule out a few. Sometimes your choices are limited because of your insurance provider and geographical situation, but doing your research helps make sure you pick the best doctor for you and your family no matter what constraints you may have.