Family caregivers' experiences of ethnic disparities in quality of care received by dementia patients from GPs

Background: Dementia risk factors are more common in ethnic minority populations than in White populations. Therefore, it would be rational to expect that ethnic minority populations have a higher proportion of dementia diagnoses and healthcare access. However, previous studies showed that the ratio of White populations diagnosed with dementia is higher. Dementia sufferers are often stigmatised, and because many are old, they also suffer stigmatisation because of their age. Therefore, dementia sufferers who are in older age groups, and from marginalised ethnic minorities usually suffer from a complex form of stigmatisation and healthcare deprivation. Thus, the disparity of dementia diagnosis and access to healthcare between the two groups may be due to the lower quality of general practitioner care provided to ethnic minority populations. This study aimed to enquire about the quality of general practitioner care for dementia patients through family caregivers’ experiences.

Methods: Qualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 equally distributed family caregivers between the two groups. They were recruited across different areas in England. Analysis was conducted using NVivo software to organise data into themes.

Results: The analysis resulted in eight themes. These were integrated into a conceptual framework. This study yielded a novel finding that family caregivers' experiences of the quality of general practitioner care for dementia sufferers depended on three inter-related factors: a) general practitioner competency, b) patient’s own attitude/perspective on general practitioner care, and c) level of access to general practitioners and services.

Conclusion: This study concluded that there are ethnic disparities regarding the quality of general practitioner care for dementia sufferers, which tended to be more disproportionate in ethnic minority populations. These, if not addressed, may further widen the ethnic divide in inequalities. Future intervention strategies to improve general practitioner care should implement programs that consider these three interrelated determinants of quality.