Asian-American patient ratings of physician primary care performance

• Published in: Journal of general internal medicine : JGIM Vol. 12; no. 4; pp. 237 - 242
• Main Authors: TAIRA, D. A, SAFRAN, D. G, SETO, T. B, ROGERS, W. H, KOSINSKI, M, WARE, J. E, LIEBERMAN, N, TARLOV, A. R
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer 01-04-1997; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Academic Medical Centers - standards; Adult; African Americans; Asian Americans; Asian Americans - psychology; Attitude to Health; Biological and medical sciences; Boston; Cross-Sectional Studies; Data collection; Demographics; Ethnicity; European Continental Ancestry Group; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Family Practice - methods; Family Practice - standards; Female; General aspects; Health Care Surveys; Health systems. Social services; Hispanic Americans; Humans; Internal medicine; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Minority & ethnic groups; Patient Satisfaction - ethnology; Patients; Personal health; Physician-Patient Relations; Physicians; Polls & surveys; Primary care; Primary Health Care - methods; Primary Health Care - standards; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Quality of Health Care - classification; Quality of Health Care - statistics & numerical data; Questionnaires; Ratings & rankings; Retrospective Studies; Risk Assessment; Boston; Performance evaluation; Human; Ethnic origin; Questionnaire; Physician patient relation; Primary health care; Public health organization; Cross sectional study; Public health; Comparative study
• ISSN: 0884-8734; 1525-1497
• DOI: 10.1007/s11606-006-5046-0

To examine how Asian-American patients' ratings of primary care performance differ from those of whites. Latinos, and African-Americans.
Retrospective analyses of data collected in a cross-sectional study using patient questionnaires.
University hospital primary care group practice.
In phase 1, successive patients who visited the study site for appointments were asked to complete the survey. In phase 2, successive patients were selected who had most recently visited each physician, going back as far as necessary to obtain 20 patients for each physician. In total, 502 patients were surveyed, 5% of whom were Asian-American.
After adjusting for potential confounders, Asian-Americans rated overall satisfaction and 10 of 11 scales assessing primary care significantly lower than whites did. Dimensions of primary care that were assessed include access, comprehensiveness of care, integration, continuity, clinical quality, interpersonal treatment, and trust. There were no differences for the scale of longitudinal continuity. On average, the rating scale scores of Asian-Americans were 12 points lower than those of whites (on 100-point scales).
We conclude that Asian-American patients rate physicians primary care performance lower than do whites, African-Americans, and Latinos. Future research needs to focus on Asian-Americans to determine the generalizability of these findings and the extent to which they reflect differences in survey response tendencies or actual quality differences.