Black Americans are 1.6 times more prone to consider medical information presented by a Black physician or patient as compared with information presented by a White speaker, a brand new study shows. This finding, the authors say, highlights the importance of accelerating racial diversity amongst healthcare providers to enhance healthcare discussions with minority populations.
Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, the brand new investigation involved greater than 2,900 men and ladies. It showed that while Black participants were more trusting of videos about prostate cancer that featured a Black presenter, race made no difference for his or her White counterparts.
Our findings reveal the necessity to increase diversity within the healthcare workforce.”
Stacy Loeb, MD. Dr. Loeb, study lead writer and urologist, professor within the Departments of Urology and Population Health at NYU Langone Health
The investigation also revealed that no matter their race, surveyed participants were more trusting of a physician discussing prostate cancer than of a patient explaining the identical information.
In keeping with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is probably the most prevalent cancer amongst American men, killing over 30,000 annually. Black men are greater than twice as prone to die from the disease compared with other racial groups, experts note.
“Our study emphasizes the responsibility of healthcare providers to play an energetic role in public communication, particularly in an environment flooded with misinformation and confusion,” said study co-investigator Joseph E. Ravenell, MD. “Clearly, people really do trust what doctors need to say,” added Dr. Ravenell, an associate professor within the Departments of Population Health and Medicine at NYU Langone.
An earlier study by the identical research team revealed that only a small percentage of online content about prostate cancer features Black or Hispanic men. The brand new investigation, published online July 19 in JAMA Network Open, was designed to reveal the direct impact of this underrepresentation on audiences, says Dr. Ravenell, who also serves because the associate dean for diversity affairs and inclusion at NYU Langone.
For the investigation, researchers randomly assigned U.S. adults ages 40 and older to look at one in all eight videos about prostate cancer, with half of them about cancer screening and the opposite half about clinical trials. Notably, clips from each category shared the identical script. The presenter of every video was either a White or Black doctor or a White or Black patient.
After watching the clips, the participants were asked to rate how strongly they trusted the data presented within the video using the next scale: “no trust in any respect,” “just a little,” “somewhat,” or “very much.” Additionally they answered questions on their background, including age and race.
Among the many other findings, the responses revealed that participants were more trusting of videos about prostate cancer screening than videos about clinical trials. In keeping with the researchers, this result could reflect the deep-seated distrust of clinical research that partially stems from a history of unethical practices before the onset of strict protections for human research participants for the reason that Fifties. It may reflect the undeniable fact that many Americans generally have a lower understanding about clinical trials compared with other health topics.
“These results underline the necessity to be sure that all patients, no matter their racial or ethnic background, have knowledge of clinical trials and may participate in the event that they are eligible,” said study senior writer Aisha Langford, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor within the Department of Population Health.
Dr. Langford cautions that since their investigation only focused on videos about prostate cancer, it stays unclear whether the findings about public trust in medical information extend to other health topics, corresponding to misinformation about vaccines.
She adds that the study team next plans to guide focus groups with Black patients with prostate cancer to debate their experiences with online sources of medical information and their suggestions for improving the standard, accessibility, and impact of those resources.
Funding for the study was provided by a U.S. Department of Defense Health Disparity Research Award.