Interest in educational programs
Interest in educational programs
Interest in educational programs
Almost one-quarter of respondents (N=86 of 368, 23%) had participated in an educational program to reduce racial disparities in health care. Of the 282 remaining respondents, 174 (62%) stated they would be interested in participating in such a program. Moreover, most (N=279 of 366, 76%) felt that raising awareness of racial disparities would be somewhat or very effective in reducing such disparities.
Respondents who were not interested in participating in an educational program were compared with those who had participated or would be interested in participating. In bivariate analysis, more nonwhite respondents than white respondents were interested in participating in an educational program ( χ2 =10.4, df=1, p=.001). Respondents who worked in a university setting were more likely than respondents who worked in other settings to be interested in participating ( χ2 =15.7, df=3, p=.001). Respondents who had been in practice longer were less likely to be interested ( χ2=8.8, df=3, p=.03). Self-reported familiarity with the racial disparities literature was positively associated with interest ( χ2 =12.4, df=2, p=.001). Interest was not associated with gender, racial-ethnic makeup of the respondent’s patient population, or number of professional meetings attended annually.
Logistic regression was used to model the likelihood that a respondent was interested in or had participated in a disparities-reduction education program. After controlling for covariates, we found that respondents’ race-ethnicity, practice setting, and familiarity with the racial disparities literature were independently associated with interest in an educational program ( Table 4 ). Nonwhite respondents were more likely than white respondents to be interested in participating in an educational program, as were those who practiced in a university setting and those who were moderately or very familiar with the racial disparities literature.
Table 4Logistic regression modeling probability that psychiatrists are interested in participating in a disparities-reduction programEnlarge table
Discussion
This study contributes insights into the challenges to achieving racial-ethnic equality in mental health care. Specifically, our findings suggest that many psychiatrists are unfamiliar with the body of literature on racial disparities and that, even among those who are knowledgeable about disparities, psychiatrists may be reluctant to acknowledge their own role in contributing to inequalities. Moreover, although most psychiatrists felt that increasing awareness of disparities would help eliminate inequality, a significant proportion was not interested in participating in disparities-reduction programs.
Although most respondents felt that psychiatrists had become more aware of racial disparities in the past decade, fewer than one in eight reported familiarity with research on racial disparities. This may suggest that psychiatrists are aware that disparities exist but are not well-versed in the academic literature. Additional research is warranted to determine how physicians learn about health care disparities, as well as to objectively determine physicians’ knowledge. Identifying gaps in knowledge, as well as identifying preferred sources of information, will help guide the design of future interventions.
