title: Patient and Physician Race and the Allocation of Time and Patient Engagement Efforts to Mental Health Discussions in Primary Care: An Observational Study of Audiorecorded Periodic Health Examinations.
abstract: This study investigated racial differences in patient-physician communication around mental health versus biomedical issues. Data were collected from audiorecorded periodic health examinations of adults with mental health needs in the Detroit area (2007-2009). Patients and their primary care physicians conversed for twice as long, and physicians demonstrated greater empathy during mental health topics than during biomedical topics. This increase varied by patient and physician race. Patient race predicted physician empathy, but physician race predicted talk time. Interventions to improve mental health communication could be matched to specific populations based on the separate contributions of patient and physician race.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts (Dr Foo); Palo Alto Medical Foundation's Research Institute, Palo Alto, California (Dr Tai-Seale); Department of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis (Dr Frankel); Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts (Drs McGuire and Zaslavsky); and Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, North Carolina (Dr Lafata).
authors.forename: Patricia K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Foo
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Frankel
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: McGuire
authors.forename: Alan M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Zaslavsky
authors.forename: Jennifer Elston
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Lafata
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tai-Seale
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011320:Primary Health Care; D044469:Racial Groups; D013637:Tape Recording; D017748:Time Management