A trip to the doctor’s office comes with a bit of preparation for most, maybe even an internal pep talk to prepare for being told to get more exercise or calm a simmering fear of needles.
But dressing well in hopes of warding off unfair treatment – or even bracing for being insulted?
A newly released poll by KFF, a health policy research group, found many patients of color — including 3 in 5 Black respondents — take such steps at least some of the time when seeing a doctor.
The poll found that 55% of Black respondents said they feel like they must be very careful about their appearance to be treated fairly at medical visits. That’s similar to the rate for Hispanic and Alaska Native patients – and nearly double the rate for white patients.
This is why I try to go to doctors who are black like me. My most recent doctor isn’t black, and she doesn’t understand that I should have my cholesterol checked during my blood workups before the age of 35-40.
I was kind of shocked when I first learned that black patients have measurably better health outcomes when they have black doctors. Ideally I’d like doctors to just not be racist, but in practice I think training more black doctors is the best way to improve care for black patients. It still involves dealing with racism, but I suspect it’s easier to deal with it in medical education than in the whole medical profession.
It really sucks that conversations like this are needed.
That’s wild that cholesterol isn’t part of a standard physical where you are. I’ve had mine checked yearly since I was 18.