Physicians’ Stigma Towards Ethnicity of Patients with Cancer and Its Effects on the Health Outcomes: The Moderating Effect of Ethnic Dissimilar Medical Encounters

Background: This study aimed to examine the moderating effect of ethnic patient-physician similarity versus dissimilarity on the relationship between physicians’ stigma towards ethnicity and physicians’ communication behaviors during medical encounters and patients’ post-meeting anxiety. Methods: A prospective nested study design with 146 encounters, including 146 patients with cancer and 32 oncology/surgery physicians, was conducted between November 2019 and July 2022 in two medical centers. Before the medical encounters, physicians were asked to complete sociodemographic, professional and the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaires (PEDQ-CV). Patients completed sociodemographic, clinical characteristics and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) questionnaires before and following the encounters. During the medical encounters, structured “real-time” observations of the physicians’ behaviors were assessed using the Four Habits Coding Scheme (4HCS). Results: The mixed linear analysis model revealed that the two-way interaction effects between physicians’ stigma toward ethnicity and the ethnic similarity between the physician and patient on physician communication behaviors (b = −.822, p <.05) and patients’ post-meeting anxiety (b =.580, p <.05) were significant. In ethnic dissimilar medical encounters, physician stigma towards ethnicity was associated with poor communication behaviors and higher post meeting patients’ anxiety. However, in ethnic similar medical encounters, physician ethnic stigma was associated with improve communication behaviors and stable levels of anxiety. Conclusions: Our study highlights the significant role of similar versus dissimilar ethnic medical encounters on the effect of ethnic stigma on health outcomes. These findings call for implementing a climate of diversity management to limit the additive effect of stigma towards ethnicity and to provide fair and equal care.