Reported Racial Discrimination in Healthcare Settings and Impacts on Health Outcomes in a Racially Diverse Sample in...

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Health Disparities
• Sociology of Health

Background:

• Healthcare racial discrimination persists as a significant barrier to achieving optimal health outcomes.
• Existing initiatives to reduce discrimination in healthcare have an unclear impact on health outcomes.
• This study investigates the association between experiencing racial discrimination in healthcare and subsequent health outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the relationship between healthcare racial discrimination and health outcomes.
• To assess differential effects of healthcare discrimination across racial and ethnic groups.

Main Methods:

• Utilized data from the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (n=22,610).
• Employed logistic regression models to analyze associations between healthcare discrimination and health outcomes.
• Stratified analyses by race/ethnicity were conducted to identify group-specific effects.

Main Results:

• Black and Hispanic participants reported higher rates of physical symptoms, emotional distress, and fair/poor health status compared to White participants.
• Healthcare discrimination was linked to increased likelihood of negative health outcomes across all racial groups.
• The impact of discrimination varied, with the strongest associations observed for physical symptoms in White individuals, emotional symptoms in Hispanic individuals, and fair/poor health in Black individuals.

Conclusions:

• Healthcare discrimination is a significant predictor of adverse health outcomes, with differential impacts across racial and ethnic groups.
• Recommendations include eliminating provider bias, enhancing racial concordance in care, and improving data collection on discrimination.
• These actions are essential for evaluating the effectiveness of health equity initiatives.