Tuesday 2 September 2008

Minority Patients Who Perceive Discrimination By Health Care Providers Less Likely To Seek Cancer Screenings, Study Finds


Members of minority groups who comprehend racial secernment from their health attention providers are less probable to be screened for breast or colon cancers, according to a recent study published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, Reuters Health reports. For the study, researchers from Stanford University surveyed 11,245 black, Hispanic, Asian and Native American adults between ages 40 and 75. About 9% of the women and 6% of the men wHO responded to the go over said they had experient some type of favoritism from their health care providers in the final five years.

According to the study, the women wHO perceived some form of discrimination from their physicians were around one-third less likely to have undergone a colorectal cancer screening and about half as likely to have had a mammogram. Among men, those world Health Organization perceived discrimination were 70% less likely to experience had a colorectal cancer screening. The researchers aforesaid there was no clear indication roughly what the physicians or other wellness care providers had done for the men and women to perceive discrimination.

In a statement released by the American Association for Cancer Research, lead research worker LaVera Crawley, an supporter professor at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics, said, "The longer person delays (cancer) screening the worse the outcome," adding, "Perception of discrimination crataegus oxycantha be driving the differences we see in outcomes among minorities." She added, "Clinicians need to be aware that they may be sending signals, even unintentionally, that lead minorities to believe they ar being discriminated against" (Reuters Health, 8/14).


An abstract of the study is available on-line.


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