Race of physician and satisfaction with care among African-American patients

The purpose of this study is to examine predictors of physician-patient race concordance and the effect of race concordance on patients' satisfaction with their primary physicians among African American patients. The specific research question is, do African American patients express greater satisfaction with their care when they have an African American physician? Using the Commonwealth Fund, Minority Health Survey, we conduct multivariate analysis of African American respondents who have a usual source of care (n = 745). More than 21% of African American patients reported having an African American physician. Patient income and having a choice in the selection of the physician were significant predictors of race concordance. And, patients who were race concordant reported higher levels of satisfaction with care compared with African American patients that were not race concordant.