Rochester study shows ethnic disparities in medic...( porting errors the results also might ...),Health

As a frequent advisor to several national groups concerned with health care disparities, Fiscella said the research has several implications:

• First, the study shows that ethnic disparities still exist in health care, despite a widespread belief that the gap is closing.

• Second, it shows that self-reported data based on patient memory contains too much human error and the federal government should not rely exclusively on it when deciding policy issues, such as the allocation of resources to eliminate health care disparities. Insurance claims may represent a less biased means for national tracking of ethnic disparities.

• And perhaps most importantly, the study helps to shed light on vexing questions such as why black women are dying from breast cancer in higher numbers than white women, despite national data suggesting that black women are getting screening mammograms, and therefore have the same access to earlier and better detection as white women.

The authors recommend further studies to clarify the causes of discrepancies in disparity estimates.

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Contact: Leslie Orr
leslie_orr@urmc.rochester.edu
585-275-5774
University of Rochester Medical Center
29-Sep-2006