Do Cardiologists Perceive Racial or Ethnic
Disparities in the Treatment of Heart Patients?
Results of a RAND Survey
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Racial and ethnic disparities in care have been extensively documented. For example, the congressionally mandated
report on health care disparities from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the National Institute of
Medicine’s report entitled Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, both provide
overwhelming evidence of racial and ethnic disparities in care. Much of the evidence comes from the field of cardiovascular care. A RAND Corporation study focuses specifically on cardiologists’ perceptions of disparities in care.
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Percentage of Cardiologists Who Answered “Very/Somewhat Likely” When Asked:
Do Clinically Similar Patients Receive Different Care on the Basis of Race/Ethnicity?
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Health care in general
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INFRASTRUCTURE
Cardiovascular care
Your hospital/clinic
Patients you treat
0
10
20
30
40
50
Percentage
NOTE: The number of responders equals 344.
■
Only one-third of cardiologists participating in the survey believe there are racial or ethnic discrepancies in the
care given to heart patients.
■
Cardiologists who acknowledge such disparities tend to place the problem elsewhere:
• Only 12 percent said that racial or ethnic disparities exist in their own hospital or clinic.
• Only 5 percent said that such disparities exist in their own practice.
■
Black doctors are five times more likely than white doctors to state that such disparities exist.
■
Women doctors are more than twice as likely as male doctors to state that such disparities exist.
■
A sizeable majority of all participating doctors (69 percent) believe that there are disparities based on whether or
not the patient is insured.
■
Many doctors also feel that patient problems (such as failure to understand or adhere to treatment) cause disparities.
This fact sheet is based on Lurie N, Fremont A, Jain A, Taylor SL, McLaughlin R, Peterson E, Kong BW, and Ferguson TB, “Racial
and Ethnic Disparities in Care: The Perspectives of Cardiologists,” Circulation, Vol. 111, No. 10, March 15, 2005, pp. 1264–1269.
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