Effects of patient-provider race concordance and smoking status on lung cancer risk perception accuracy among African-Americans.

BACKGROUND

Communication of lung cancer risk information between providers and African-American patients occurs in a context marked by race-based health disparities.

PURPOSE

A controlled experiment assessed whether perceived physician race influenced African-American patients' (n = 127) risk perception accuracy following the provision of objective lung cancer risk information.

METHODS

Participants interacted with a virtual reality-based, simulated physician who provided personalized cancer risk information.

RESULTS

Participants who interacted with a racially discordant virtual doctor were less accurate in their risk perceptions at post-test than those who interacted with a concordant virtual doctor, F(1,94) = 4.02, p = .048. This effect was amplified among current smokers. Effects were not mediated by trust in the provider, engagement with the health care system, or attention during the encounter.

CONCLUSIONS

The current study demonstrates that African-American patients' perceptions of a doctor's race are sufficient to independently impact their processing of lung cancer risk information.