Of those diagnosed with early stage lung cancer, 69 percent of black patients opted for surgery, compared to 83 percent of white patients.
MedPage Today reports the findings from a cohort study in the Archives of Surgery. All the patients had Medicare, making insurance a non-factor.
Possible reasons include different racial-based beliefs, including that blacks “were more likely to believe that surgery accelerated tumor spread,” and that they were more likely to believe a cure was possible without surgery, stemming from an inherent distrust of the medical system.
Another reason, which is also seen in cases of cardiac care, is that physicians who treat black patients “had less access to high-quality subspecialists compared with physicians treating white patients.”
So, in the end, is the racial bias on the part of doctors, or the belief system of black patients responsible for finding? The authors could draw no conclusions, but I suspect it’s probably a bit of both.
Related posts:
- Does robotic surgery for prostate cancer help patients?
- Are blacks being operated on by less experienced surgeons?
- Lung cancer CT screening produces false positives and isn’t ready for prime time
- Are whites more likely to be screened for colon cancer?
- Should tobacco companies pay for smokers’ CT scans to screen for lung cancer?
- Should doctors fire young patients if their parents refuse to vaccinate them?
- A genetic test to identify smokers who will develop lung cancer
{ 1 comment }
A study of cancer chemotherapy patients counted the words exchanged in a visit. If doctor and patient had the same race, the patient uttered more words. The patient uttered fewer words if the doctor was of a different race. This is one factor for racial disparity in health outcomes.
If the patient has a race different from that of the doctor, the doctor must do more talking, and less waiting for the patient to come up with questions or comments.
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