Typologies of mental healthcare discrimination experiences and associations with current provider care ratings: A latent class analysis

Background Discrimination is experienced across demographic attributes (e.g., race and gender) and vantage points (e.g., personal and vicarious), yet few studies have classified these different experiences of discrimination within healthcare systems. Moreover, which discriminatory experiences have greater influence on patient-reported quality outcomes remains poorly understood. To address these gaps, we used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify typologies of past experiences with healthcare discrimination among adults with depression—who experience more frequent and stigmatizing healthcare interactions than the general population—and assess the relationship between class membership and current ratings of patient-reported quality outcomes. Methods We surveyed a nationally representative sample of adults with depression (n ​= ​803) to assess past experiences of discrimination by medical providers in terms of both the characteristics targeted for discrimination and whether healthcare discrimination was experienced personally or by friends and family members. We conducted an LCA to identify discrimination–exposure classes and a modified Poisson regression to identify associations between class membership and patient-reported quality outcomes (e.g., overall medical provider quality, respect, clear communication, and careful listening), while adjusting for covariates. Results We identified four latent classes of healthcare discrimination: low discrimination (LD; referent class: 72.2% of total sample), vicarious linguistic discrimination (VL; 13.9%), elevated personal and vicarious racial discrimination (EPVR; 10.5%), and high racial/ethnic discrimination (HRE; 3.4%). Compared to those in the LD class, individuals in the EPVR class had higher rates of reporting their current medical provider's respect and careful listening skills as sometimes or never, (Respect aIRR: 1.90, 95% CI: 1.05–3.42; Listening aIRR: 2.18, 95% CI: 1.29–3.66). Those in the HRE class reported higher rates of reporting their medical provider's quality and communication as poor or fair and lower ratings of careful listening (Quality aIRR: 2.06, 95% CI: 1.08–3.93; Communication aIRR: 1.97, 95% CI: 1.00–3.63; Listening aIRR: 2.41, 95% CI: 1.27–4.59), compared to those in the LD class. Those in the VL class had higher rates of reporting that their medical provider never or sometimes respected or carefully listened to them (Respect aIRR: 2.12, 95% CI: 1.20–3.72; Listening aIRR:1.67, 95% CI:1.03–2.71) than those in, the LD class. Conclusions Healthcare organizations committed to providing equitable patient care should establish more robust quality improvement approaches to prevent discrimination at the medical provider level as well as structures of accountability to reconcile previously embedded social inequities within the healthcare system.