Rojas Mary, Walker-Descartes Ingrid, Laraque-Arena Danielle
Associate Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Yeshiva University, Maimonides Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Brooklyn, NY;, Email:
Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein College of Medicine Yeshiva University, Maimonides Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Brooklyn, NY.
Am J Health Behav. 2017 May 1;41(3):358-367. doi: 10.5993/AJHB.41.3.15.
We evaluated whether implicit racial bias influences pediatricians' suspicion of child abuse.
Child abuse experts developed 9 injury vignettes. Pediatricians (N = 342) were randomly assigned one of 2 versions to rate for suspicion of abuse, with the child's race in each vignette varying between white and black. Data were collected online and anonymously.
There were no statistically significant differences in suspicion for an abuse-related injury based on the race of the child. We adjusted for pediatrician race/ethnicity, years since graduation, location, and gender and did not find race effects.
We demonstrated an experimental approach to study the influence of implicit racial bias on recognition of child abuse. Though we failed to find an effect, it is too early to conclude that none exists. The relationship among human cognition, behavior, and healthcare disparities is complex. Studies are needed that incorporate diverse approaches, clinical contexts and scenarios, patient and physician characteristics, and validated measures if we are to understand how it might be used to reduce healthcare disparities.
我们评估了隐性种族偏见是否会影响儿科医生对虐待儿童的怀疑程度。
虐待儿童问题专家编写了9个伤害案例。342名儿科医生被随机分配到两个版本中的一个，对虐待怀疑程度进行评分，每个案例中儿童的种族在白人和黑人之间变化。数据通过在线方式匿名收集。
基于儿童种族，对与虐待相关伤害的怀疑程度没有统计学上的显著差异。我们对儿科医生的种族/民族、毕业年限、地点和性别进行了调整，未发现种族效应。
我们展示了一种研究隐性种族偏见对虐待儿童认知影响的实验方法。尽管我们未能发现影响，但现在就得出不存在这种影响的结论还为时过早。人类认知、行为和医疗保健差距之间的关系很复杂。如果我们要理解如何利用它来减少医疗保健差距，就需要开展包含多种方法、临床背景和场景、患者及医生特征以及经过验证的测量方法的研究。
