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Race, healthcare access and physician trust among prostate cancer patients

Cancer Causes & Control volume 21, pages 31–40 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

Objective

To study the effect of healthcare access and other characteristics on physician trust among black and white prostate cancer patients.

Methods

A three-timepoint follow-up telephone survey after cancer diagnosis was conducted. This study analyzed data on 474 patients and their 1,320 interviews over three time periods.

Results

Among other subpopulations, black patients who delayed seeking care had physician trust levels that were far lower than that of both Caucasians as well as that of the black patients overall. Black patients had greater variability in their levels of physician trust compared to their white counterparts.

Conclusions

Both race and access are important in explaining overall lower levels and greater variability in physician trust among black prostate cancer patients. Access barriers among black patients may spill over to the clinical encounter in the form of less physician trust, potentially contributing to racial disparities in treatment received and subsequent outcomes. Policy efforts to address the racial disparities in prostate cancer should prioritize improving healthcare access among minority groups.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality—Grant No: 5P01HS010861, The Duke Endowment, the UNC Program on Health Outcomes, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities—Grant 1P60MD00244, National Cancer Institute—Grants 1U01CA114629 and 2R25CA057726, Department of Defense—Grant PC060911, and NIH—Grant P30 DK 034987.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Policy and Management, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, 1102F McGavran-Greenberg Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-7411, USA

    Young Kyung Do & William R. Carpenter

  2. Program in Health Services and Systems Research, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, 8 College Road, Singapore, 169857, Singapore

    Young Kyung Do

  3. UNC-Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    William R. Carpenter & Paul A. Godley

  4. UNC Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    William R. Carpenter, Pamela Spain, Anne Jackman & Paul A. Godley

  5. Center for Health Quality, Outcomes, and Economic Research, Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital, Bedford, MA, USA

    Jack A. Clark

  6. Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Jack A. Clark

  7. Department of Surgery (Urology), University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Robert J. Hamilton

  8. UNC Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Joseph A. Galanko & Paul A. Godley

  9. Center for Outcomes Research, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    James A. Talcott

  10. UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Paul A. Godley

Authors
  1. Young Kyung Do
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  2. William R. Carpenter
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  3. Pamela Spain
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  4. Jack A. Clark
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  7. Anne Jackman
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  8. James A. Talcott
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  9. Paul A. Godley
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to William R. Carpenter.

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Do, Y.K., Carpenter, W.R., Spain, P. et al. Race, healthcare access and physician trust among prostate cancer patients. Cancer Causes Control 21, 31–40 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9431-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-009-9431-y

Keywords

  • Race
  • Disparity
  • Prostate neoplasm
  • Healthcare utilization
  • Trust