(Press-News.org) The world first review explored interpersonal racism perpetrated by healthcare providers, a key driver of racial disparities in health. Interpersonal racism refers to racist interactions between individuals, rather than internalised or systemic or institutional racism.
Researchers Ms Mandy Truong and Dr Naomi Priest from the University of Melbourne and Professor Yin Paradies from Deakin University, reviewed 37 studies published between 1995 and 2012 of racism among healthcare providers.
The review assessed attitudes towards race held by physicians, nurses and allied healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists and social workers, as well as support staff such as nursing aides involved in direct patient care.
Most of the 37 studies included in the review were conducted in the U.S.
"Twenty six of 37 studies published between 1995 and 2012 show evidence of racist beliefs, attitudes and practices amongst healthcare providers," researcher Ms Truong said.
"This review provided evidence that healthcare provider racism exists, and demonstrated a need for more sophisticated approaches to assessing and monitoring it."
Studies included in the review found providers had less positive perceptions about black patients in relation to level of intelligence and compliance with medical advice. It was also found that doctors had an implicit preference for white Americans relative to black Americans.
The findings of this review have substantial relevance to medical and healthcare provision, and highlight an ongoing need to recognise and counter racism among healthcare providers.
"There is an ongoing need for more sophisticated approaches to assessing and monitoring healthcare provider racism. Strategies could include greater education and awareness of the health consequences of racism as well as a more rigourous and sophisticated approach to monitoring racism among healthcare providers," Ms Truong said.
"Introducing programs and approaches that dispel false beliefs and counter racial stereotypes as well as promoting intercultural understanding would also be beneficial."
INFORMATION:
The article was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. END
Racism -- not what the doctor ordered
2014-05-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Matching the expertise of perfumers to create new scents
2014-05-07
From jasmine to sandalwood, the alluring scents of the most luxurious perfumes might seem more art than science, but a new way to analyze them breaks from the tradition of relying only on experts' sense of smell to blend fragrances. Scientists report that they have developed a model that can help perfumers predict how various combinations of chemicals will smell. The study appears in the ACS journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research.
Miguel A. Teixeira and colleagues from LSRE laboratory in Portugal explain that the design of new fragrances for the perfume industry ...
Scientists link honeybees' changing roles throughout their lives to brain chemistry
2014-05-07
Scientists have been linking an increasing range of behaviors and inclinations from monogamy to addiction to animals', including humans', underlying biology. To that growing list, they're adding division of labor — at least in killer bees. A report published in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research presents new data that link the amounts of certain neuropeptides in these notorious bees' brains with their jobs inside and outside the hive.
Mario Sergio Palma and colleagues explain that dividing tasks among individuals in a group is a key development in social behavior among ...
Energy device for flexible electronics packs a lot of power
2014-05-07
While flexible gadgets such as "electronic skin" and roll-up touch screens are moving ever closer to reality, their would-be power sources are either too wimpy or too stiff. But that's changing fast. Scientists have developed a new device that's far thinner than paper, can flex and bend, and store enough energy to provide critical back-up power for portable electronics. Their report appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
In their paper, James Tour and colleagues point out that many materials that have been investigated for energy storage potential are ...
Statistical test increases power of genetic studies of complex disease
2014-05-07
BETHESDA, MD – May 7, 2014 – The power of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to detect genetic influences on human disease can be substantially increased using a statistical testing framework reported in the May issue of the journal GENETICS.
Despite the proliferation of GWAS, the associations found so far have largely failed to account for the known effects of genes on complex disease — the problem of "missing heritability." Standard approaches also struggle to find combinations of multiple genes that affect disease risk in complex ways (known as genetic interactions).
The ...
Blogosphere exerts new consumer influence on food industry
2014-05-07
Earlier this year, bloggers scored a high-profile victory in their campaign against a common bread ingredient — also used in yoga mats and other plastics — when Subway announced it was dropping the substance from its dough recipe. The case highlights the powerful influence of online campaigns, and how they are changing the food industry, according to an article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly news magazine of the American Chemical Society.
Melody M. Bomgardner, senior editor at C&EN, notes that consumers' curiosity and outrage about what's in their ...
Repeated preschool wheeze may set the stage for long-term damage in lung function
2014-05-07
This news release is available in French. Children who wheeze are at risk of developing damage that will affect their lung function by the age of 6 years, according to researchers at CHU Sainte-Justine Hospital and the University of Montreal. These appear to be persistent, even if asthma symptoms seem to disappear at least temporarily by school age in several cases. Children with recurrent symptoms that are severe enough to warrant a visit to the emergency department are particularly at risk of seeing their lung function affected. This may persist in adulthood and into ...
The Swiss paper wasp, a new species of social Hymenoptera in Central Europe
2014-05-07
Swiss scientists have discovered a new species of aculeate wasp, not hidden somewhere in a jungle on a remote continent, but in Central Europe, in a swampy area just a few kilometers from Zurich. The new species named "Polistes helveticus", or the Swiss paper wasp, was described in the open access journal ZooKeys.
Paradoxically, this species has been long known in Central Europe but was confused for decades with a closely related species native to southern Europe. Only after the latter expanded its range to northern Switzerland, possibly following climate change, was ...
TAG-1 induces apoptosisrelated gene expression without triggering glioma apoptosis
2014-05-07
A recent study reported by Haigang Chang and co-workers from the First Affiliated Hospital of Xinxiang Medical University in China verified the effects of transient axonal glycoprotein-1 (TAG-1) on cell viability and p53, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and amyloid precursor protein (APP) intracellular C-terminal domain (AICD) expression in U251 glioma cells. Their pilot study showed that the signaling pathways induced by TAG-1, TAG-1/APP/AICD/p53 and TAG-1/APP/AICD/EGFR, did not inhibit glioma development by inhibiting cell proliferation or by inducing apoptosis. ...
Shuganjieyu capsule increases neurotrophic factor expression in a rat model of depression
2014-05-07
Shuganjieyu capsule has been approved for clinical treatment by the State Food and Drug Administration of China since 2008. In the clinic, Shuganjieyu capsule is often used to treat mild to moderate depression. Prof. Jingping Zhao and team from the Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University in China conducted a study to examine the effect of Shuganjieyu capsule on behavioral changes in a rat model of depression. They focused on the underlying mechanisms of Shuganjieyu capsule by examining brain-derived neurotrophic factor and phosphorylated cyclic adenosine monophosphate ...
Psilocybin inhibits the processing of negative emotions in the brain
2014-05-07
Emotions like fear, anger, sadness, and joy enable people to adjust to their environment and react flexibly to stress and strain and are vital for cognitive processes, physiological reactions, and social behaviour. The processing of emotions is closely linked to structures in the brain, i.e. to what is known as the limbic system. Within this system the amygdala plays a central role – above all it processes negative emotions like anxiety and fear. If the activity of the amygdala becomes unbalanced, depression and anxiety disorders may develop.
Researchers at the Psychiatric ...