Perceived racial discrimination in health care: a comparison of Veterans Affairs and other patients. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • OBJECTIVES: We compared rates of perceived racial discrimination in health care settings for veteran and nonveteran patients and for veterans who used the Veterans Affairs health care system and those who did not. METHODS: Data were drawn from the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. We used logistic regression to examine whether perceived racial discrimination in health care was associated with veteran status or use of Veterans Affairs health care, after adjusting for patient characteristics. RESULTS: In this sample of 35,902 people, rates of perceived discrimination were equal for veterans and nonveterans (3.4% and 3.5%, respectively; crude odds ratio [OR] = 1.00; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.77, 1.28; adjusted OR = 0.92; 95% CI = 0.66, 1.28). Among veterans (n = 3420), perceived discrimination was more prevalent among patients who used Veterans Affairs facilities than among those who did not (5.4% vs 2.7%; OR = 2.08; 95% CI = 1.04, 4.18). However, this difference was not significant after adjustment for patient characteristics (OR = 1.30; 95% CI = 0.54, 3.13). CONCLUSIONS: Perceived racial discrimination in health care was equally prevalent among veterans and nonveterans and among veterans who used the Veterans Affairs health care system and those who did not.

publication date

  • May 14, 2009

Research

keywords

  • Delivery of Health Care
  • Prejudice
  • United States Department of Veterans Affairs

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC2774170

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 73349118182

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.2105/AJPH.2008.150730

PubMed ID

  • 19443818

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 99 Suppl 3