Thursday 21 August 2008

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


Members of minority groups who perceive racial discrimination from their health fear providers ar less likely 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 survey said they had experient some type of secernment from their health aid providers in the last five years.

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

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


An abstract of the study is available on-line.


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