Physicians' Perceptions Of People With Disability And Their Health Care

More than sixty-one million Americans have disabilities, and increasing evidence documents that they experience health care disparities. Although many factors likely contribute to these disparities, one little-studied but potential cause involves physicians' perceptions of people with disabilit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inHealth affairs (Millwood, Va.) Vol. 40; no. 2; pp. 297 - 12
Main Authors Iezzoni, Lisa I, Rao, Sowmya R, Ressalam, Julie, Bolcic-Jankovic, Dragana, Agaronnik, Nicole D, Donelan, Karen, Lagu, Tara, Campbell, Eric G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE 01.02.2021
Subjects
Americans with Disabilities Act 1990-US
Attitude of Health Personnel
Bias
Bone surgery
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disabilities
Disability
Disabled Persons
Health care
Health disparities
Health services
Healthcare Disparities
Humans
Intellectual disabilities
Internal medicine
Medical personnel
Medicine
Mental disorders
Ophthalmology
Orthopedics
Patients
Perception
Perceptions
Physicians
Polls & surveys
Population
Qualitative research
Quality of care
Quality of Life
Response rates
Rheumatology
United States
United States
United States > US
Massachusetts
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Summary:More than sixty-one million Americans have disabilities, and increasing evidence documents that they experience health care disparities. Although many factors likely contribute to these disparities, one little-studied but potential cause involves physicians' perceptions of people with disability. In our survey of 714 practicing US physicians nationwide, 82.4 percent reported that people with significant disability have worse quality of life than nondisabled people. Only 40.7 percent of physicians were very confident about their ability to provide the same quality of care to patients with disability, just 56.5 percent strongly agreed that they welcomed patients with disability into their practices, and 18.1 percent strongly agreed that the health care system often treats these patients unfairly. More than thirty years after the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was enacted, these findings about physicians' perceptions of this population raise questions about ensuring equitable care to people with disability. Potentially biased views among physicians could contribute to persistent health care disparities affecting people with disability.
ISSN:0278-2715
1544-5208
DOI:10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01452