Unfair Treatment at Root of African American Preference for Same-Race Doctors, UC Study Finds

One in five African Americans states a preference for a same-race health-care provider. Up until now the assumption has been that this inclination was based on knowledge of current racial disparities in medical treatment or knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments. But research by University of Cincinnati sociologist Jennifer Malat now shows the preference is based on personal experience with unfair treatment.

“This is startling,” says Malat. “It is contrary to the prevalent thinking. I think part of what is going on is that it has been a lot easier for people working on the front lines of health care to say that this tendency was based on past problems with racist behavior. My study suggests that is not a valid argument – the only predictor for African Americans preferring a same-race doctor or nurse is unfair treatment experienced personally or by a family member.”

“I think this will be an uncomfortable paper for people to hear,” continues Malat, who will present her study at the American Sociological Association annual meeting on Monday, Aug. 18, in Atlanta.

For her research, the UC assistant professor of sociology used national phone survey data collected by the Kaiser Family Foundation. She found that knowledge of current racial disparities in health care to African Americans as a group or the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments had no relationship at all to an African American’s preference for a same-race health-care provider. On the other hand Africans Americans who indicated they or a family member had experienced unfair treatment from the medical community were twice as likely to prefer African American doctors and nurses.

The data included 1,189 African Americans surveyed in 1999 for the Kaiser Family Foundation for a study published that same year.  “I was very happy when they agreed to share their data with me,” Malat says.
 
During the 40-year Tuskegee experiments, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) conducted research on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis who were not informed they had the disease or its degree of seriousness.