Heart Study Points to Race, Sex Bias

Doctors are far less likely to recommend sophisticated cardiac tests for blacks and women than for white males with identical complaints of chest pains, a Georgetown University study found. In tightly controlled interviews about how they would manage simulated patients, 720 primary care physicians said they would refer blacks and women to heart specialists 60% as often as they would white male patients. Black women would have been referred 40% as often as white men. The study’s authors suggest the differences are the consequences of race and sex bias, as the testing process ensured that the only differences among the simulated patients were race and gender.