A recently-published groundbreaking study in the Journal of American Academy of Neurology discovered that Latino and black patients who suffer from neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s dementia, Parkinson’s disease and stroke, have more chances of receiving considerably diverse and less satisfactory care than patients who are white. This inconsistent treatment affects recovery, treatment, diagnosis and specialist care happens even when these patients of diverse ethnicity or race have the same levels of education, incomes or insurance coverage.
The discovery supports the same conclusions that involve the establishment of medical care to victims of diabetes, heart disease and breast cancer. For instance, a research by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2014 discovered that the medical treatment offered to minorities like Latinos and African-Americans were inadequate as to whites even if they have the same insurance coverage and incomes for diabetes, stroke, breast cancer and heart disease.
This most recent research considered the national information on treatment of five particular disorders (epilepsy, headache, cerebrovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis), as well as, “any self-identified neurological disorder except back pain.” This was the very first to target neurological conditions and ailments specifically, besides access to a neurologist.
The primary concern herewith is that most of these minorities were less likely to see a neurologist compared to white patients who would make this decision instead. The research that included 280,000 patients discovered that Latinos (40 percent) and blacks (30 percent) were less likely to get in touch with a neurologist than white patients. Moreover, blacks had to stay admitted longer, received higher inpatient fees and were usually sent to emergency departments compared to the whites.
Their study revealed that the root of all of this is informational because the communities of these minorities lack knowledge regarding these neurological diseases to want to have it treated in the first place. Not only that, these minorities experience stereotypes and bias from the referring neurologists and physicians themselves. The medical world has tried to address this by having these medical professionals go through a bias training and multicultural care on a more continuous note, instead of just a one-time thing.