Survey suggests people with disabilities may feel disrespected by health care providers

An analysis of data from a cross-sectional household survey found that people with disabilities were more likely than those without disabilities to report negative experiences with their health care provider’s “cultural responsiveness,” or the way the provider treated them and engaged them in their care.

The findings complement recent evidence of physicians’ harmful perceptions of people with disabilities and underscore the need for future research on how adverse health care experiences affect health outcomes for such patients. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Mihir Kakara and other researchers from the Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement studied data from 22,864 adults who participated in the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to compare the perceptions of culturally responsive care among people with and without disabilities and stratified by disability type.

Participants had seen a health care provider in the prior year and were asked questions to capture their perceptions of their health care provider’s “cultural competence.”

The researchers analyzed responses to 3 of the 4-point Likert scale questions that they dichotomized (“always/most of the time” as positive and “some/none of the time” as negative) to capture patient perceptions of whether health care providers treated them with respect, solicited their opinions and beliefs, and provided easy-to-understand information. Disability status was defined as having a limitation in any activity.

Overall, people with disabilities reported not receiving culturally responsive care. People with all types of disabilities said they were less likely to receive easily understood information, especially those with vision, hearing or cognitive disabilities.

People with nearly all disability types reported feeling like they weren’t treated with respect and participants with psychological, vision, and hearing disabilities were less likely to perceive receiving culturally responsive care across all three questions. According to the authors, the findings also highlight a need to broaden the concept of culturally responsive care to include disabilities that are not immediately visible.

An analysis of data from a cross-sectional household survey found that people with disabilities were more likely than those without disabilities to report negative experiences with their health care provider’s “cultural responsiveness,” or the way the provider treated them and engaged them in their care.

The findings complement recent evidence of physicians’ harmful perceptions of people with disabilities and underscore the need for future research on how adverse health care experiences affect health outcomes for such patients. The study is published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Mihir Kakara and other researchers from the Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement studied data from 22,864 adults who participated in the 2017 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to compare the perceptions of culturally responsive care among people with and without disabilities and stratified by disability type.

Participants had seen a health care provider in the prior year and were asked questions to capture their perceptions of their health care provider’s “cultural competence.”

The researchers analyzed responses to 3 of the 4-point Likert scale questions that they dichotomized (“always/most of the time” as positive and “some/none of the time” as negative) to capture patient perceptions of whether health care providers treated them with respect, solicited their opinions and beliefs, and provided easy-to-understand information. Disability status was defined as having a limitation in any activity.

Overall, people with disabilities reported not receiving culturally responsive care. People with all types of disabilities said they were less likely to receive easily understood information, especially those with vision, hearing or cognitive disabilities.

People with nearly all disability types reported feeling like they weren’t treated with respect and participants with psychological, vision, and hearing disabilities were less likely to perceive receiving culturally responsive care across all three questions. According to the authors, the findings also highlight a need to broaden the concept of culturally responsive care to include disabilities that are not immediately visible.