The Encounters of African Americans with and Without Aphasia with Healthcare Providers

Research Objectives: This project aimed to explore healthcare perceptions across diverse demographic groups, including those with and without aphasia. It focused on differences among ethnic groups, particularly African Americans and African American women, who have historically reported poorer experiences, and investigated factors influencing these perceptions beyond medical conditions.

Design: A convergent mixed methods design

Setting: An online Qualtrics survey comprising of the Discrimination in Medical Setting Scale (DMS) was developed to probe for the perceptions of medical encounters of respondents across the United States.

Participants: 99 respondents from multiple gender, ethnic, educational, and socioeconomic groups completed the survey. Convenience sampling was used. Participants were recruited through a multi-faceted approach, utilizing word of mouth (i.e., phone calls, text messages), online platforms (i.e., social media, internet site posts), flyers, emails, and face-to-face interactions.

Interventions: Not applicable.

Main Outcome Measures: The outcome measure is the variation in healthcare experience perceptions across different demographic groups and the specific factors contributing to these differences.

Results: Findings suggest variability in individual DMS questions compared to overall ratings (total mean scores) in each research question. No significant difference was found in overall healthcare experience ratings between people with aphasia and those without. However, a significant difference emerged in (Q1) "You are treated with less courtesy than other people," with people with aphasia reporting higher scores than those without.

Conclusions: The findings of this study provide valuable insights into the healthcare experiences of various demographic groups. While overall negative experiences were rare, the variability within certain groups highlights the importance of considering individual differences and intersectionality in healthcare research. Given the variability in effect sizes and standard deviations, larger samples may either confirm current findings of infrequent negative experiences or support existing literature on adverse healthcare encounters for marginalized individuals.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors have no conflicts of interest