Understanding the Patient-Physician Interaction: Potential for Reducing Health Disparities

Abstract

Racial differences in health and health care persist. These differences can be linked, in part, to physician-patient communication. This study examined the effect of race concordance and communication comfort on the patient's level of general satisfaction and their intent to adhere to physician instructions. Results indicate that patient satisfaction and likelihood of adherence are related to communication comfort. Additionally, patients seeing a physician of their own race are more likely to adhere to instructions than those seeing a physician of a different race, although the effect of race-concordance is not as strong as communication comfort. In-terestingly, race-concordance is not related to patient satisfaction. We conclude that both communication comfort and race-concordance play major roles in the patient-physician relationship. Given that communication comfort appears to play a more important role than race concordance, our findings suggest that increasing awareness of racial differences and effective communication can increase patient satisfaction and adherence intent. Increasing adherence with treatment regimes should increase positive health outcomes.