| dc.description.abstract | Doctor-patient interactions look different than they did 30 years ago. Who has the power and influence in doctor-patient relationships? The doctor, the patient, or a shared power? In recent decades, doctor-patient interactions have transitioned toward more patient-centered encounters, in which the influence and control in the encounter is shared. This study examines whether patient cultural health capital impacts the way doctors and patients interact. Cultural health capital is a “specialized collection of cultural skills, attitudes, behaviors and interactional styles that are valued, leveraged, and exchanged by both patients and providers during clinical interactions” (Dubbin, Chang, and Shim 2013, p. 113).
To understand why every patient does not experience patient-centered care during medical encounters, this paper explores how cultural health capital impacts the doctor-patient encounter. In this exploratory quantitative analysis, I leverage audiotaped medical examinations from an eleven-month study at a family medicine practice to examine how a patient's cultural health capital influences the doctor-patient interaction type. I use logistic regression to predict patient-centered care based on patient health literacy when holding patient and doctor demographic characteristics constant. My results demonstrate that patient cultural health capital is not statistically related to having a patient-centered encounter. This study finds when patients have high health literacy rates, their odds of receiving patient-centered care do not differ significantly from patients with low health literacy. Patients with high levels of income and education have the greatest odds of receiving patient-centered care. Ultimately, this study suggests that a patient’s cultural health capital, at least in terms of health literacy, is not associated with the probability of patients receiving patient-centered care. | en_US |
