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Compared to White Americans, African-Americans are less likely to use primary care (PC) as their usual source of care. This is generally attributed to race differences in socioeconomic status and in access to primary care services. Little is known about the relationship between race differences in medical mistrust and the usual source of care disparity. Using data from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities (EHDIC) study, we examined the role of medical mistrust in choosing usual source of care in 1408 black and white adults who were exposed to the same healthcare facilities and low-income racially integrated community. Multinomial logistic regression models were estimated to examine the relationship between race, medical mistrust, and usual source of care. After adjusting for demographic and health-related factors, African-Americans were more likely than whites to use the emergency department (ED) (relative risk ratio [RRR] = 1.43 (95 % confidence interval (CI) [1.06-1.94])) and hospital outpatient department (RRR1.50 (95 %CI [1.10-2.05])) versus primary care as a usual source of care. When medical mistrust was added to the model, the gap between African-Americans' and whites' risk of using the ED versus primary care as a usual source of care closed (RRR = 1.29; 95 % CI [0.91-1.83]). However, race differences in the use of the hospital outpatient department remained even after accounting for medical mistrust (RRR = 1.67; 95 % CI [1.16-2.40]). Accounting for medical mistrust eliminated the ED-as-usual-source of care disparity. This study highlights the importance of medical mistrust as an intervention point for decreasing ED use as a usual source of care by low-income, urban African-Americans.

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Little is known about how health insurance contributes to the prevalence of chronic disease in the overlooked population of low-income urban whites. This study uses cross-sectional data on 491 low-income urban non-elderly non-Hispanic whites from the Exploring Health Disparities in Integrated Communities-Southwest Baltimore (EHDIC-SWB) study to examine the relationship between insurance status and chronic conditions (defined as participant report of ever being told by a doctor they had hypertension, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, anxiety or depression, asthma or emphysema, or cancer). In this sample, 45.8 % were uninsured, 28.3 % were publicly insured, and 25.9 % had private insurance. Insured participants had similar odds of having any chronic condition (odds ratios (OR) 1.06; 95 % confidence intervals (CI) 0.70-1.62) compared to uninsured participants. However, those who had public insurance had a higher odds of reporting any chronic condition compared to the privately insured (OR 2.29; 95 % CI 1.21-4.35). In low-income urban areas, the health of whites is not often considered. However, this is a significant population whose reported prevalence of chronic conditions has implications for the Medicaid expansion and the implementation of health insurance exchanges.

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The authors examine determinants of satisfaction with medical care among 1,784 (781 African American and 1,003 white) cardiac patients. Patient satisfaction was modeled as a function of predisposing factors (gender, age, medical mistrust, and perception of racism) and enabling factors (medical insurance). African Americans reported less satisfaction with care. Although both black and white patients tended not to endorse the existence of racism in the medical care system, African American patients were more likely to perceive racism. African American patients were significantly more likely to report mistrust. Multivariate analysis found that the perception of racism and mistrust of the medical care system led to less satisfaction with care. When perceived racism and medical mistrust were controlled, race was no longer a significant predictor of satisfaction.

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The objective of this article is to describe the racial and ethnic differences in health status during the "middle years" of life. We use data from National Vital Statistics Reports (Hoyert, Kochanek, and Murphy, 1999) to estimate excess mortality among racial and ethnic minority groups for the leading causes of death among adults. Also discussed are the current state of scholarship in minority health and suggestions for future directions for research on racial and ethnic differences in health status.

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