Ethnic identity in health care: Intercultural health communication and physician-patient satisfaction

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of ethnic identity on how physicians and patients communicate in the medical interview based on the tenets of the Communication Theory of Identity. Both the physicians and the patients responded to survey measures to determine their effectiveness using intercultural communication as well as their relative levels of satisfaction with these interpersonal encounters. Only some of the physicians and patients were willing to admit that they openly display their ethnic identities in the medical interview. Most of the participants chose not to acknowledge the importance of ethnic identity in these interactions, or they only focus on the impact of communication without ethnicity.