Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Ethnic background influences impact of medical information
by Kelly Winget, DCRI Communications

Educating patients about ways to improve their health is an important part of trying to reduce preventable illnesses. But to have the most impact, it is necessary to reach people in a way that is useful to them. Researchers recently learned that people of different races and ethnic backgrounds have very different information resources that they consider useful and are inclined to listen to.

Minority patients often face more preventable illnesses and death than whites do, and can have a poorer quality of healthcare, so it is crucial to help educate people about how to adopt healthy behaviors.

Kevin Schulman, MD, director of the DCRI's Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics, recently led a study to get a sense of what resources are considered useful for different patient populations. The results are published in the latest issue of the N.C. Medical Journal.

 “Health care providers and public health practitioners have to consider how patients perceive various sources of medical information if we're going to try to educate and empower people to eliminate healthcare disparities,” said Schulman. “Minorities' perceptions of information sources are important because they are related to trust. Previous studies have shown connections between race/ethnicity, trust, and interactions in medicine and medial research.”

The study reviewed data from a 2002 telephone survey of 515 Durham County residents 18 and older, with an approximately equal split between black, Latino and white responders. A number of the questions asked about the usefulness of 12 different sources of medical information.

All groups said that they consider doctors and nurses to be useful sources of information. Among black and Latino people surveyed, they also tended to see ministers and churches, community centers, health departments and television or radio spots as more useful sources of information than white responders did. Latinos were less likely to report pharmacies as useful sources than the other groups.

People who completed the survey and had more education tended to list the pharmacy as a useful, reliable source. Survey responders who were younger, less educated and uninsured considered the health department to be a source they listened to. Radio and television spots were considered useful by people who had less education and poorer health and those who were uninsured.

Preventing health problems is a challenge for providers, because people tend to try to treat themselves before they turn to a doctor, Schulman said. Tailoring healthcare messages for different sources increases the effectiveness of the message.

"If we want to send a message and are not using reliable media, then the message isn't helpful," said Schulman. "An important part of public health involves health messaging and social marketing."

Other DCRI researchers involved in the study include Kevin J. Anstrom and Joëlle Y. Friedman.