Racial and Socioeconomic Disparities in Physician-Patient Communication and Perceived Health Care Treatment: Implications for Health Maintenance

• In Event: 4411 - Challenges and Barriers in Health Care Delivery

Abstract

Research has historically documented persisting racial and socioeconomic disparities in physician-patient communication and quality of health care treatment. However, few contemporary studies disentangle the effects of race and socioeconomic differences in physician-patient communication and quality health care treatment using nationally representative data and structural equation modeling. Further, limited research discusses how these disparities potentially affect maintenance of health and likelihood to receive care again. This study adds to the literature by updating existing studies on racial and socioeconomic disparities in physician-patient communication and quality health care treatment with new data and analysis. Furthermore, through my application of cultural health capital and critical race theories, I argue that blacks and people from low socioeconomic backgrounds receive unfair treatment by physicians and health care institutions. The end of the study poses implications as to how these disparities may ultimately affect health maintenance and likelihood to return to the hospital to receive medical care. Data from the 2015 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) are limited to a subsample of adults who reported going to the doctor in the past year. I examine the health care characteristics, physician-patient communication, and perceived quality health care treatment of black (n=888) and white patients (n=5,459). Preliminary results reveal that interactions between race and physician communication result in low levels of patient communication and black patients are more likely to perceive the quality of care they receive as optimal compared to white patients. Results reveal that patients from low socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to receive poor physician communication and less optimal quality health care treatment. These findings underscore the cumulative effects of racial disparities in quality of care and communication for health maintenance and likelihood to access health care again in a timely manner.

Author

• Oshea Donnell Johnson, University of Miami