Compared to patients referred by their family doctor, those referred by another specialist or health-care provider had about twice the odds of seeing a specialist within a month. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press)

Canadian women were less likely than men to see a medical specialist within a month, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.

The agency's report, Waiting time for medical consultations in Canada, 2007, is based on 5,515 people aged 15 or older who said they'd consulted a specialist about a new condition in the previous 12 months and reported a waiting. In 2007, an estimated three million Canadians saw a specialist within the previous year.

"We did this study because we wanted to look at the kinds of factors — patient factors, health-care provider factors — that were associated with longer versus shorter wait times to access these kinds of specialists," report author Gisèle Carrière of Statistics Canada's health analysis division in Vancouver said in an interview.

In the report, Carrière and co-author Claudia Sanmartin of the department's health analysis division in Ottawa noted women were significantly less likely than men to see a specialist within a month.

Urgent care

Previous studies have found gender bias in access to primary care for heart disease, but the gender gap noticed in this report may also reflect differences in the severity of the condition requiring a specialist consultation, the pair said. For example, men may wait longer to get help for a medical condition and are expedited through the system because they are in more urgent need of care, Carrière said.

But there was limited information about the patients' health status before the visit and no measure of the severity of the new condition was available, so these factors couldn't be taken into account fully, the analysts said.

In the report, 51 per cent of men said they saw a specialist within a month, compared with 42 per cent of women.

Overall in 2007, an estimated three million patients consulted a specialist. Forty-six per cent of respondents saw a specialist within a month. Almost 60 per cent of these patients were female.

The top three reasons to see a specialist were:

• Gynecological conditions — 12 per cent.
• Heart/stroke — nine per cent.
• Cancer — seven per cent.

Other factors the analysts considered in connection with the wait times were the source of the referral, household income, immigrant status and the nature of the medical condition.

Compared to patients referred by their family doctor, those referred by another specialist or health-care provider had about twice the odds of seeing a specialist within a month. Family doctors may refer someone to see a diagnosis to clarify a diagnosis, and those referred by specialist may have been further along the line in their care, Carrière said.

By nature of condition, almost 60 per cent of those with a heart condition, stroke or cancer waited less than a month, compared to 39 per cent for gynecological conditions, 42 per cent for skin conditions, and 29 per cent for arthritis and rheumatism.

Men's wait times linked to incomes

For men, the analysts said, wait times were longer for those who had lower household incomes.

The researchers also found that among men, the odds of seeing a specialist within a month were twice as high for those who had immigrated more than 10 years earlier than for those born in Canada.

Male immigrants may not have access to primary care in the same way ,perhaps because of language barriers, or their disease may be more advanced when they saw a specialist, Carrière speculated.

In terms of provincial differences, the proportion waiting less than a month was higher in Newfoundland and Labrador, 37 per cent, and Manitoba, 37 per cent, compared to the total for the rest of the country, excluding the territories, at 45.6 per cent. At 51 per cent, people in Quebec waited less than the national average.