People With Disabilities Often Feel Disrespected by Health Care Workers

MONDAY, March 10, 2025 (HealthDay News) — People with disabilities (PwD) are more likely to report negative experiences with the cultural responsiveness of health care providers (HCPs), according to a research letter published online March 4 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Mihir Kakara, M.B.B.S., from the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, and Jaya Aysola, M.D., from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, compared the perceptions of culturally responsive care from HCPs among people with and without disabilities using data from the 2017 National Health Interview Survey. Overall, 22,864 adults who had seen their HCP in the previous year were asked about the cultural competence of their HCP. Reponses to three of the 4-point Likert scale questions were analyzed.

Of the 22,864 participants, 15.72 percent had a disability. The researchers found that PwD were less likely to report receiving culturally responsive care from their HCPs for all three questions compared with those without disabilities: risk differences, −1.8, −3.8, and −4.2 for being treated with respect, being asked for their opinions about their care, and being given easily understood information, respectively. PwD, especially those with vision, hearing, and cognitive disabilities, were less likely to perceive receiving easily understood information. The likelihood of being treated with respect was reported to be lower for participants with all disability types except mobility-related disability. The likelihood of receiving culturally responsive care across the three questions was lower for those with psychological, vision, and hearing disabilities.

“Of note, our findings complement recent evidence of physicians” harmful perceptions of PwD,” the authors write.

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