Investigating the Effects of Culturally Responsive Physicians on Treatment Seeking Behaviors
Location
Statesboro Campus (Room 2052)
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis Presentation (Open Access)
Faculty Mentor
Dr. Karen Naufel
Faculty Mentor Email
knaufel@georgiasouthern.edu
Presentation Year
2022
Start Date
16-11-2022 6:00 PM
End Date
16-11-2022 7:00 PM
Description
People from marginalized communities often receive fewer healthcare opportunities than people who are not from marginalized communities (Copeland, 2016), which contributes to health disparities. Physician cultural responsiveness is the willingness to seek out knowledge and adapt to different cultural beliefs (Ring, 2009). The present study investigated how the presence of cultural responsiveness in fictional yelp reviews impacted Black and White participants’ willingness to seek treatment and evaluate physicians favorably. Nineteen Black participants and thirty-nine White participants who indicated they would use an OB/GYN participated in this study. All participants read twelve Yelp-like reviews about OB/GYN’s: six had culturally responsive characteristics to them; six did not have culturally responsive characteristics. After each review, participants indicated how much they anticipated liking the physician, the importance of the physician’s characteristics, the likelihood that they would leave a review of the doctor, the likelihood they would recommend the physician, and the likelihood of seeking treatment from this doctor. Five mixed model ANOVAs were conducted with the alpha level adjusted to .01. Compared to White participants, Black participants liked and were more likely to seek treatment from culturally responsive physicians. White participants were more likely to recommend, seek treatment from, and report higher importance of character for non-culturally responsive physicians than culturally responsive physicians. Further research should investigate the factors for why these patterns of results emerged. Additionally, it is important to note our study has a small sample size, however, we believe if replicated with a larger sample size, the results would be consistent.
Academic Unit
College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Investigating the Effects of Culturally Responsive Physicians on Treatment Seeking Behaviors
Statesboro Campus (Room 2052)
People from marginalized communities often receive fewer healthcare opportunities than people who are not from marginalized communities (Copeland, 2016), which contributes to health disparities. Physician cultural responsiveness is the willingness to seek out knowledge and adapt to different cultural beliefs (Ring, 2009). The present study investigated how the presence of cultural responsiveness in fictional yelp reviews impacted Black and White participants’ willingness to seek treatment and evaluate physicians favorably. Nineteen Black participants and thirty-nine White participants who indicated they would use an OB/GYN participated in this study. All participants read twelve Yelp-like reviews about OB/GYN’s: six had culturally responsive characteristics to them; six did not have culturally responsive characteristics. After each review, participants indicated how much they anticipated liking the physician, the importance of the physician’s characteristics, the likelihood that they would leave a review of the doctor, the likelihood they would recommend the physician, and the likelihood of seeking treatment from this doctor. Five mixed model ANOVAs were conducted with the alpha level adjusted to .01. Compared to White participants, Black participants liked and were more likely to seek treatment from culturally responsive physicians. White participants were more likely to recommend, seek treatment from, and report higher importance of character for non-culturally responsive physicians than culturally responsive physicians. Further research should investigate the factors for why these patterns of results emerged. Additionally, it is important to note our study has a small sample size, however, we believe if replicated with a larger sample size, the results would be consistent.
