Disparities In Physician Care: Experiences And Perceptions Of A Multi-Ethnic America

• Published in: Health Affairs Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. 507 - 517
• Main Authors: Blendon, Robert J, Buhr, Tami, Cassidy, Elaine F, Perez, Debra J, Sussman, Tara, Benson, John M, Herrmann, Melissa J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Health Affairs 01.03.2008; The People to People Health Foundation, Inc., Project HOPE
• Subjects: Adult; African Americans; Asian Americans; Attitude to Health; Chinese Americans; Communication Barriers; Country of birth; Ethnic Groups - psychology; Ethnic Groups - statistics & numerical data; Female; Filipino Americans; Health care; Health Care Surveys; Healthcare Disparities; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Japanese Americans; Male; Medical service; Minority & ethnic groups; Native North Americans; Perceptions; Physician-Patient Relations; Physicians; Public health; Quality of care; Quality of Health Care; Racial differences; Studies; United States; United States; United States > US
• ISSN: 0278-2715; 1544-5208
• DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.27.2.507

This 2007 Harvard School of Public Health/Robert Wood Johnson Foundation survey of 4,334 randomly selected U.S. adults compared perceptions of the quality of physician care among fourteen racial and ethnic groups with those of whites. On each measure examined, at least five and as many as eleven subgroups perceived their care to be significantly worse than care for whites. In many instances, subgroups were at least fifteen percentage points more negative than whites. This was true for Central/South Americans, Chinese Americans, and Korean Americans on five of seven measures. Many of the differences remained after socioeconomic characteristics and language skills were controlled for.