The Association of Clinician Characteristics with their Attitudes Toward Patients with Sickle Cell Disease: Secondary Analyses of a Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: A high level of evidence exists to suggest that negative attitudes held by clinicians toward persons with sickle cell disease serve as important barriers to the delivery of high quality care to this patient population. Little is known. though. about the characteristics of clinicians that may be predictive of these negative attitudes. Methods: During spring and summer 2009, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to test an intervenlion to improve clinician attitudes toward persons with sickle cell disease. Participating clinicians completed questionnaires regarding their demographic characteristics and their attitudes toward sic kle cell patienls. Principal clinician charac teristics of interest included their race, professio nal discipline (nurse/ physic ian), and the amount of their recent exposure to sickle cell patients in pain. Secondary analyses from this trial are presented here. Main Findings: Asian clinicians reported more negative allitudes towards these palients than did Black or White clinicians, nurses reported more negative altitudes lhan physicians. and clinicians w ith the greatest levels of recent exposure to sickle cell patients in pain reported more nega tive attitudes than did clinicians with lower levels of recent exposure. Conclusions: Our findings could facilitate the development of tailored educational resources needed to improve the quality of care delivered to persons with sickle cell disease, a national priority for sickle cell efforts.