Self-reported physician attitudes and behaviours towards incarcerated patients.

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  • Additional Information
    • Source:
      Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 7513619 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1473-4257 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 03066800 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Med Ethics Subsets: MEDLINE
    • Publication Information:
      Publication: <2004->: London : BMJ Publishing Group
      Original Publication: London, Society for the Study of Medical Ethics.
    • Subject Terms:
      Physicians* ; Prisoners*; Attitude of Health Personnel ; Humans ; Physician-Patient Relations ; Self Report
    • Abstract:
      Physicians anecdotally report inquiring about incarcerated patients' crimes and their length of sentence, which has potential implications for the quality of care these patients receive. However, there is minimal research on how a physician's awareness of their patient's crimes/length of sentence impacts physician behaviours and attitudes. We performed regression modelling on a 27-question survey to analyse physician attitudes and behaviours towards incarcerated patients. We found that, although most physicians did not usually try to learn of their patients' crimes, they often became aware of them. We observed associations between awareness of a patient's crime and poor physician disposition towards their patients and between physicians' poor dispositions and lower reported quality of care. These associations suggest that awareness of a patient's crime may reduce quality of care by negatively impacting physicians' dispositions towards their patients. Future quantitative and qualitative studies, for example, involving physician interviews and direct patient outcome assessments, are needed to confirm these findings and further uncover and address hurdles incarcerated patients face in seeking medical care.
      Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared.
      (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)
    • Contributed Indexing:
      Keywords: prisoners; quality of health care
    • Publication Date:
      Date Created: 20210515 Date Completed: 20220427 Latest Revision: 20220526
    • Publication Date:
      20240105
    • Accession Number:
      10.1136/medethics-2020-107005
    • Accession Number:
      33990430