BALTIMORE, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- A Johns Hopkins study suggests the perception that racial barriers to healthcare exist in the rural South is prevalent, especially among African-Americans.
Overall, 36 percent of study participants said there were racial barriers to healthcare in their community, with 54 percent of African-Americans and 23 percent of whites reporting that perception.
The researchers, led by Dr. Angela Fowler-Brown of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, looked at survey data from 3,694 respondents in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
Fowler-Brown said African-Americans who were middle-aged or older, male, or who reported being in good-to-excellent health, were more likely to perceive racial barriers. Among whites, those who were relatively younger, less-educated, uninsured and reporting poorer health were more likely to perceive racial barriers.
"The root of this problem is the institutionalized discrimination that was pervasive in American society, including the medical community, for many years," said Fowler-Brown. "Most people would agree there is now much less overt racism in the medical community, but the scars remain."
The study appears in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved.
