Ethnic Discrimination Within Primary Care

Discrimination for Real? Rigorous Examination of Ethnic Discrimination Within Swedish Primary Health Care

Status

Completed

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT07660575

Enrollment

5367

Registered

2026-06-22

Start date

2024-01-01

Completion date

2025-07-31

Last updated

2026-06-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Health Care Disparities

Keywords

ethicity, discrimination, health care

Brief summary

The aim of this study is to examine whether patients are subjected to ethnic discrimination when seeking medical care within the digital Swedish primary health care service: 1177-direct. In doing so, we aim to identify and statistically control for other major pathways through which treatment differences may arise and which do not constitute direct discrimination, e.g., ethnic group differences in comorbidity. The stored data from the "1177-direct" digital platform enable rigorous examination of discrimination of patients with different ethnic backgrounds that are matched in many respects (e.g., reported symptoms, comorbidity, socioeconomic status, gender). Discrimination as manifested by ethnic differences in health care professionals' patient-centered communication (from the digital chat) and medical treatment will be probed for. By pinpointing the mechanisms underlying unequal care (e.g., discrimination), the results should be of relevance to future interventions aimed at combating inequalities in health care.

Interventions

None listed

Study design

Observational model

COHORT

Time perspective

CROSS_SECTIONAL

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to No maximum

Inclusion criteria

* patients being 18 years or older and appearing in the "1177-direct" data base

Exclusion criteria

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Patient centered communication	Duration of the patient visit in the platform "1177 direct". Duration typically varies between 10-20 minutes, although some visits may take significantly longer.	Name of measurement: Person centered communication. Unit of measurement: Incidence of patient centered communication displayed in health care professionals' chat messages. Measurement tool: manual deductive coding of chat messages according to a patient centeredness manual developed by our research group.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Type of care received	Duration of the patient visit in the platform "1177 direct". Duration typically varies between 10-20 minutes, although some visits may take significantly longer.	Self-devised categorical variable capturing the type of care received. Unit of measure; for example, recommended self-care, physical appointment with a nurse, physical appointment with a doctor, referral to emergency/acute care.

Countries

Sweden

Outcome results