The effects of gender and age on evaluation of trainees and faculty in gastroenterology.

OBJECTIVES: We studied whether differences exist in evaluation scores of faculty and trainees in gastroenterology (GI) based on the gender of the evaluator or evaluatee, or the evaluator-evaluatee gender pairing.
METHODS: We examined evaluations of faculty and trainees (GI fellows and internal medicine residents rotating on GI services), using mixed linear models to assess effects of the four possible evaluator-evaluatee gender pairings. Potential confounding variables were adjusted for, and random effects were used to account for repeated assessments.
RESULTS: For internal medicine (IM) residents, no difference in evaluation scores based on gender was found. Resident age was negatively associated with performance rating, while percentage correct on the in-training examination (ITE) was positively associated. For GI fellows, the interaction between evaluator and evaluatee gender was significant. Fellow age and international medical graduate (IMG) status were negatively associated with performance rating, while ITE percentage correct was positively associated. For faculty, no difference was found in evaluation scores by IM residents based on the gender of the evaluated faculty or the evaluating resident, although the interaction between the evaluator and the evaluatee gender was significant. Gender had a significant marginal effect on faculty scores by GI fellows, with female faculty receiving lower scores. The interaction between evaluator and evaluatee gender was also significant for evaluations by fellows. Faculty age was negatively associated with performance rating. DISCUSSION: Gender, age, and ITE performance are associated with evaluation scores of GI trainees and faculty at our institution. The interaction of evaluator and evaluatee gender appears to play a more critical role in evaluation scoring than the gender of the evaluatee or evaluator in isolation.