Identifying Racial Inequities in Respect and Autonomy During Delivery Care

INTRODUCTION: Measuring patient experience is core to understanding and addressing inequities in obstetric care quality. METHODS: People who gave birth at one of five hospitals in Massachusetts and identified as non-Hispanic Black (NHB) or non-Hispanic White (NHW) were invited to complete a structured survey 7–16 weeks postpartum, from February to September 2022. The survey included two validated patient experience instruments: the Mothers on Respect index, dichotomized as “very respectful” or not and the Mothers Autonomy in Decision Making scale, dichotomized as “high patient autonomy” or not. We report risk ratios of associations between patient characteristics and respectful or autonomous care, adjusting for hospital cluster using Stata v.17. Institutional review board approval was received from the Social and Behavioral Research IRB at Tufts University. RESULTS: Of 417 respondents (response rate: 25%), 245 (59%) were NHW and 172 (41%) were NHB. Most had a bachelor’s degree (62%). 241 (60%) of births were vaginal. Very respectful treatment was reported by 78% of respondents, whereas high patient autonomy was only reported by 64%. Non-Hispanic White people were 1.2 times as likely to report high respect compared to NHB (95% CI: 1.1, 1.4). Respect was also significantly lower for those with lower education and those with vaginal birth compared to those with cesarean birth. Differences in respect by race remained significant in multivariable models (1.2, 95% CI: 1.0, 1.4). Autonomy did not differ by any of the assessed demographic or delivery characteristics. CONCLUSION: Examining patient experience revealed inequities. To identify opportunities for improvement and monitor change, brief, validated, patient reported experience measures need to be incorporated into routine data collection.