Health Views Differ Along Ethnic Lines
| AR Articles on Racial Differences |
|---|
| Race and Psychopathic Personality (Jul. 2002) |
| Race and Teenage Pregnancy (Feb. 2002) |
| The Biological Reality of Race (Oct. 1999) |
| Why Race Matters (Oct. 1997) |
| Race and Health (May 1996) |
| A New Theory of Racial Differences (Dec. 1994) |
| Search AmRen.com for Racial Differences |
| More news stories on Racial Differences |
WASHINGTON (AP)—Minorities are more likely than white patients to rate their health care as fair or poor, a view that is particularly true among Chinese-Americans, blacks born in Africa and Vietnamese-Americans.
Researchers have long stressed that improving patients’ perception of their care is important to improving outcomes. That’s because negative experiences can lead to less time spent with a physician and poor communications between doctor and patient.
To get a more detailed view of the differing perceptions that patients have, researchers at Harvard University and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation surveyed 4,334 adults last year. The researchers asked patients such questions as how quickly they were able to get an appointment the last time they were sick and whether their doctor explained things in a way the patient could understand. The researchers found that whites routinely rated their experience higher than did the minority patients, who still had largely favorable views of their care.
For example, 91 percent of whites rated their care as excellent or good. That percentage fell for most ethnic groups, with the lowest ratings recorded among Chinese-Americans, 74 percent; African-Americans born in Africa, 73 percent; and Vietnamese-Americans, 72 percent.
When it came to getting an appointment, about 63 percent of whites were able to get an appointment on the same day or the next day after they became sick or injured. That percentage dropped to 42 percent for Cuban-Americans and 39 percent for African-Americans born in the Caribbean.
About three-quarters of whites reported that their doctor listened carefully to them. That percentage fell to 62 percent for Korean-Americans and 58 percent for those from Central America or South America.
{snip}
The report will be published in the journal Health Affairs.
(Posted on March 12, 2008)
Comments
I’m a white male and I find that the opposite is true. Where I live, most health-care workers are “people of color” and they give preference to their own kind. I can’t wait until I can retire and get the heck out of the D.C. area.
Posted by Realist at 8:49 PM on March 12
yeah, i want to retire and get the heck out of the D.C. area too, but unfortunately I am at least three decades away from that…lol! This report also ran completely contrary to my own ethnic observations - I think the health care here and its providers can be pretty darn unsatisfactory. Get me out of this multicultural nightmare…(please)
Posted by Grace at 1:08 AM on March 13
Yes, opposite views ; blacks in any Western Society never had it so well when contrasted to any medicine practiced in black societies . Blacks appreciative of ” whitey ” ? Never ; only condemnation; such Christian brotherhood on their hateful part.
Posted by Michigan patriot at 8:15 AM on March 13
So blacks born in Africa complain about the health care they receive in the United States?
What possible rebuttal could we have for that?
Posted by Dennis at 10:45 AM on March 13
Before my wife and I were married she had an Asian roomate who was in a car accident. Being a student the roomate was concerned about the cost of going to the hospital even though she was in pain. We convinced her that her foreign student benefits would help pay for it and took her late in the evening. She spent the entire two hours complaining about the wait, how things wouldn’t take so long where she was from, and then left after we had gotten into the the examination area.
We tried to explain to her that emergency room visits take some time but the care she would recieve would be woth it. She didn’t care that we put ourselves out by driving her and staying up with her. I didn’t bother trying to explain that the care she would recieve where she was from would be inferior and she did not understand why we stopped being her friend after that. We just told her that her irrationality and and disrespectful treatment was unneccessary and we were’nt interested.
Posted by NorthAmericanWhiteMan at 11:24 AM on March 13
I’m a white male and I find that the opposite is true. Where I live, most health-care workers are “people of color” and they give preference to their own kind. I can’t wait until I can retire and get the heck out of the D.C. area.
I know exactly what you are saying. I am white female and seen People of color will favor their own kind and try to ignore me. In fact every time I get a allergy shot with Black nurse I had problem with the shot. Later I found out she does not even put the shot in the right place.
Posted by JSB at 12:46 PM on March 13
Naturally white people are to blame. Why don’t they start their own health system and show whitey how to do it?
Posted by Tim at 2:54 PM on March 13
China has a terrible health care system, I know that. I had a patient from China once who told me that for surgery, they utilize acupuncture for anesthesia. She said it was horrible. I asked her flat out what she preferred Chinese ways or Western Medicine. She blurted out, “Western medicine!” But that was about 15 years ago.
I think that these current complaints are due to the increased feeling of entitlement along with expectations that are unreasonable.
Posted by Whiteplight at 3:44 PM on March 13
“I’m a white male and I find that the opposite is true. Where I live, most health-care workers are “people of color” and they give preference to their own kind. I can’t wait until I can retire and get the heck out of the D.C. area.
I know exactly what you are saying. I am white female and seen People of color will favor their own kind and try to ignore me. In fact every time I get a allergy shot with Black nurse I had problem with the shot. Later I found out she does not even put the shot in the right place.”
Posted by JSB at 12:46 PM on March 13
> I’m a retired doctor and I won’t accept treatment from a doctor who is not white for the same reasons. I have seen many cases of it.
Posted by Whiteplight at 3:47 PM on March 13
Neither my wife nor I will use Diversitoid health care professionals. On the other hand, we take good care of ourselves, and so rarely need them. We each get our teeth cleaned twice a year, and she gets an annual checkup. That’s five visits a year. Even after my 2006 stroke, I saw doctors only three times. I am going to need a loose, 31 year-old amalgam filling replaced with a crown this spring, so that will mean a sixth visit.
The health insurance her employer provides the two of us is a “preferred provider organization.” That means that as long as a doctor we want to see is on the PPO list, we pay only $5 per visit. A pity it doesn’t cover dental work.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:07 PM on March 14