Mistrust in Physicians does not Explain Black-white Disparities in Primary Care and Emergency Department Utilization: The Importance of Socialization During the Jim Crow era.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Compared to whites, blacks under-utilize primary care (PC) and over-utilize emergency department (ED) services. The aim of this study is to determine whether mistrust in physicians explains these black-white disparities, and the potentially modifying influence of socialization under racially segregated health care (i.e., raised in the U.S. South during the Jim Crow era).

Methods

Data come from the nationally representative Americans' Changing Lives Study (n=1,578). Poisson regression techniques are utilized to respectively model PC and ED utilization among a sample of non-Hispanic black and white adults aged forty-years and older.

Conclusion

Mistrust in physicians does not explain black-white disparities in PC or ED utilization. Blacks under-utilize PC service

SUBMITTER: Hua CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6110974 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature