Male residents more likely than females to interrupt in conferences

More male than female residents interrupt during teaching conferences, according to research published in JAMA Network Open.

“We found measurable gender differences in communication at conferences: male residents interrupted more frequently than female residents, consistent with ‘power and status effects,’” Amrapali Maitra, MD, PhD, a resident in the department of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and colleagues wrote.

Maitra and colleagues conducted a cohort study analyzing morning report conferences from January through June 2020 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s internal medicine residency program. As conferences were held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic starting in March 2020, the researchers evaluated both in-person and virtual conferences.

In the study, the researchers defined a verbal interruption as “a breach in conversational turn-taking,” which included a resident’s request to clarify, agreements, disagreements or changing the subject of conversation. A single researcher recorded attendance at each conference and counted the number of interruptions.

Maitra and colleagues evaluated 50 conferences, 18 of which were in-person and 32 of which were virtual. The mean gender distribution of conference attendees was 61.4% (13.8%) women and 38.6% (13.8%) men.

A total of 187 interruptions — 67% from men and 33% from women — were recorded during conferences. The researchers found that the frequency of interruptions by residents of the same gender did not differ significantly from interruptions by residents of the opposite gender in men and women.

Maitra and colleagues determined that the median number of interruptions from men (1.5; IQR = 1.0-3.0) was significantly higher than the number of interruptions from women (0.5; IQR = 0-2.0). They also found that, when assessing in-person and virtual conferences separately, for virtual conferences there was a significant difference in the median number of interruptions made by men (1.0; IQR = 0.5-2.0) and women (0; IQR = 0-1.0). However, there was not a significant difference during in-person conferences.

In all conferences, the researchers determined that men interrupted more often than expected based on attendance and assuming that there was equal participation from both genders.

They found that interruptive behavior differed significantly by gender of conference discussant in all conference types. Across all conferences, Maitra and colleagues found that men made fewer than expected interruptions with discussants who were female faculty members (mean difference = 0.17; 95% CI, 0.33 to 0.68), and made more than expected interruptions when there was a male faculty discussant (mean difference = 1.88; 95% CI, 1.10-2.67).

“Our findings highlight the need to foster gender equity in graduate medical education,” Maitra and colleagues wrote. “Future interventions should include gender bias training around managing interruptions and greater inclusion of women faculty to diversify communication styles in the learning environment.”