Development and evaluation of a cultural competency training curriculum

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Medical Education
• Health Disparities

Background:

• Physician cultural competence is proposed to reduce health disparities by enhancing care quality across diverse patient groups.
• Despite its promotion, few studies have evaluated the impact of cultural competency training for physicians.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of cultural competency training and feedback on patient-reported physician cultural competence and clinical outcomes.
• To assess changes in patient trust, satisfaction, weight, blood pressure, and glycosylated hemoglobin levels.

Main Methods:

• 53 primary care physicians and 429 diabetic/hypertensive patients were recruited from 4 practice sites.
• Physicians at 2 sites received cultural competency training; all physicians received aggregated performance feedback.
• Outcomes measured at 6 months included Patient-Reported Physician Cultural Competence (PRPCC) scores and clinical markers.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were observed in PRPCC scores, patient trust, satisfaction, weight, systolic blood pressure, or glycosylated hemoglobin between the training+feedback and feedback-only groups.
• The training intervention showed no measurable impact on patient-reported or disease-specific outcomes.

Conclusions:

• The limited physician training intervention did not yield significant improvements in patient-reported or disease-specific outcomes.
• Future research should explore more intensive interventions and different provider groups to effectively reduce health disparities.