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Predictors of Perceived Discrimination in Medical Settings Among Muslim Women in the USA

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Abstract

Minority groups based on immigration status, gender, or religion often face discrimination in healthcare settings. Muslim women, especially those who wear hijab, are more likely to experience stereotyping and discrimination in and outside of healthcare, but little is known about the sociodemographic predictors of this discrimination. We examined sociodemographic factors and religiosity as predictors of discrimination in medical settings among Muslim American women. Muslim women (n = 254) were recruited from Muslim organizations in Chicago to self-administer a survey on perceived discrimination, religiosity, and sociodemographic characteristics. Many participants reported that they were treated with less courtesy than non-Muslims (25.4%) and that a doctor or nurse did not listen to them (29.8%) or acted as though they were not smart (24.3%). A multivariable regression model revealed that self-rated religiosity was negatively associated with discrimination. Race/ethnicity trended towards predicting perceived discrimination such that Arabs and South Asians reported less discrimination than African Americans. The current study sheds light on the important role of religiosity in shaping Muslim women’s experiences in medical settings and points to the buffering effect of religiosity and the additive consequences of racial/ethnic identity in experiences of religious discrimination.

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Data Availability

Deidentified data from this study may be made available upon request from the authors.

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Funding

This work was supported by an Institutional Research Grant (#58–004) from the American Cancer Society and a Cancer Center Support Grant (#P30 CA14599).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Sohad Murrar & Aasim I. Padela

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Sohad Murrar

  3. Initiative On Islam and Medicine, Brookfield, WI, USA

    Sohad Murrar, Benish Baqai & Aasim I. Padela

  4. Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Benish Baqai & Aasim I. Padela

  5. Center for Bioethics and the Medical Humanities, Institute for Health and Equity, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Aasim I. Padela

Authors
  1. Sohad Murrar
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  2. Benish Baqai
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  3. Aasim I. Padela
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Contributions

Sohad Murrar and Aasim Padela were involved in designing the study and in collecting, analyzing, and interpreting the data. Sohad Murrar, Benish Baqai, and Aasim Padela wrote and revised the manuscript. All authors have reviewed the manuscript and approved the manuscript for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sohad Murrar.

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Ethics Approval

The study was approved by the University of Chicago’s Institutional Review Board.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Murrar, S., Baqai, B. & Padela, A.I. Predictors of Perceived Discrimination in Medical Settings Among Muslim Women in the USA. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 11, 150–156 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01506-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-022-01506-0

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