Keywords: General Practitioners, Gender role, Workload

Introduction:

The feminization of family medicine raises questions about whether gender conditions different practice styles or leads to greater vulnerability to occupational stress. This study aims to compare real-world clinical activity (quantitative and qualitative) and emotional well-being between male and female physicians in a cohort of sentinel family doctors. Objective: Compare activity, resolution, relevance, and emotional state between male and female family doctors.

Method:

A descriptive, cross-sectional, multicenter, and serial study using convenience sampling. Participants: family physicians from primary care centers. Workloads were compared using clinical activity records—collected prospectively and in real-time to avoid recall bias—covering a full week in May 2025 in Catalonia (Spain). Variables: Visit volume, typology, resolution, adequacy, clinical relevance, and well-being: Resilience levels (CD-RISC10) and prevalence of Severe Burnout (MBI). Hypothesis testing (Student's t-test, Chi-square) was applied to determine significant differences.

Results:

55 physicians (13 men, 42 women). Mean age: 48.1 years (Men) vs. 50.2 years (Women) (p=0.48). Total visits analyzed: 7,692. Daily visit volume: 27.9 (M) vs. 30.6 (W) (p=0.14). Visit adequacy: 78.7% (M) vs. 78.8% (W) (p=0.93). Clinical relevance (0-4 scale): 1.75 (M) vs. 1.49 (W) (p<0.001). Resolution at first visit: 45.1% (M) vs. 43.1% (W) (p=0.09). Accumulated delay at the end of the shift: 19.2 min (M) vs. 25.0 min (W) (p=0.1). Severe Burnout: 15.4% (M) vs. 14.3% (W) (p=0.9). Mean resilience: 27.8 (M) vs. 29.4 (W) (p=0.44).

Conclusions:

There are no significant differences by gender in age, objective care pressure, visit adequacy, or burnout prevalence, showing a highly homogeneous practice profile. The only significant divergence is found in perceived clinical relevance, which is higher in men. This suggests a difference in the subjective self-assessment of daily clinical activity, without impacting technical resolution capacity or the observed emotional exhaustion levels.