BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article
Front. Health Serv.
Sec. Patient Centered Health Systems
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1420698
Patient experience during medical visits in predominately African American rural communities in Alabama
Provisionally accepted
- 1Capstone College of Nursing, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, IN, United States
- 2College of Community Health Sciences, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, IN, United States
- 3Alabama Life Research Institute, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, IN, United States
- 4Town of Fort Deposit, Fort Deposit, United States
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Patient experience, specifically, shared decision making, has been demonstrated to significantly affect patient outcomes. The current study examined the clinician-patient communication (CPC) experiences of residents in predominately rural African American communities in Alabama. The 255 participants completed a survey designed to assess aspects of patient experience at their last clinical visit. A third of participants reported not being satisfied with their most recent clinical visit; a majority (55.7%) of participants reported their clinician did not ask their opinion.Participants over age 65 reported greater patient satisfaction and respect compared to younger participants aged 18-45 years. Trending gender effects showed that females reported being listened to more and were more likely to report being treated with respect than male participants.The results of the study show that the clinician-patient experience in rural predominately African American communities represents an opportunity to improve health care outcomes and minimize racial disparities.
Keywords: patient experience, clinician-patient communication, age, gender, African American
Received: 20 Apr 2024; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wood, Hites, Payne Foster, Newman and Newman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sharlene D. Newman, Alabama Life Research Institute, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, 47405, IN, United States
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