A recent study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that patients who are of the same race as their doctor report more satisfaction with their physician. When given the opportunity to choose their own physician, patients were also more likely to pick doctors of their same race. In addition, white respondents were more likely to be race concordant with their physician when compared to African-American, Hispanic, and Asian American respondents. "Is Doctor-Patient Race Concordance Associated with Greater Satisfaction with Care?" was published in the September 2002 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

Thomas A LaVeist, PhD, a study co-author and associate professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said, "Although the theory that patients prefer a doctor of their own race is quite popular, that hypothesis had never been thoroughly tested. We wanted to determine if it was indeed true that patients express greater satisfaction if they have a physician of the same race group."

Previous studies have found that patients who are satisfied with their physicians were more likely to keep follow-up appointments and comply with a prescribed medical regimen and less likely to initiate a malpractice suit in the event of an adverse medical outcome.

The study was conducted using the 1994 Commonwealth Fund Minority Health Survey, which is a nationally representative sample of adults 18 years of age and older residing in households with telephones within the 48 contiguous United States. Researchers examined a sample of African-American, white, Hispanic, and Asian American respondents.

With the exception of Asian Americans, the study respondents were most likely to have a white physician. Asian Americans were more likely to be race concordant. In addition, African-American and Hispanic respondents were more likely than whites to have physicians from minority group
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Contact: Kenna L. Brigham
paffairs@jhsph.edu
410-955-6878
Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health
31-Oct-2002

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