223113 Does preference matter? An examination of health care preferences among African American and Hispanic older adults

Monday, November 8, 2010

Karon Phillips, PhD, MPH , Program on Aging and Care, Scott & White Memorial Hospital, Temple, TX
Background: Preliminary studies have revealed that client-provider racial/ethnic concordance is an effective cultural competence technique. Previous research has found that clients that are treated by a provider of the same race/ethnicity are more satisfied with the care they receive. There are, however, some studies that have found that racial/ethnic concordance only effects satisfaction for clients that had a preference to have a provider of the same race/ethnicity. Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of racial/ethnic concordance on overall satisfaction with care received for clients that did and did not have a preference for a provider of the same race/ethnicity. Methods: The respondents were 330 African Americans/Blacks and 204 Hispanics/Latinos ages 50 and older that responded to a national telephone survey. The direct and interactive roles of the predictive variables were examined in order to explore between-group differences and within-group variability. Results: The results from this study indicate that client provider racial/ethnic concordance may not be a universally effective cultural competence technique for older racial/ethnic minorities and that the unique preferences of clients should be considered when providing health care.

Learning Areas:
Diversity and culture

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate how effective client-provider racial/ethnic concordance is for older African Americans/Blacks and Hispanics/Latinos.

Keywords: Minority Health, Health Care

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I completed the research for my doctoral dissertation using the same data. In addition, one of the research questions in my dissertation addressed client-provider racial/ethnic concordance.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.