Patients with disabilities are less likely to feel health care workers treat them respectfully, according to new research from the Perelman School of Medicine. Additionally, patients with disabilities were also significantly less likely than those without disabilities to say that their providers gave them information that was easy-to-understand. The findings are published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

“People with disabilities make up 20% of American adults. This group already faces multiple barriers to accessing care, and they have large disparities in health outcomes. When they perceive disrespect from their providers, it can make them less proactive in engaging with the health care system, especially preventative care,” says Mihir Kakara, who led the study as a neurology fellow at the Perelman School of Medicine. “It is easy to imagine these patients not following up on certain recommendations—for example, getting that repeat brain scan to follow up on a certain lesion—if they don’t feel respected.”

Overall, 2.9% of people without disabilities reported that they felt their providers didn’t treat them with respect. But among patients with disabilities, 4.8% reported feeling that way.

“These findings prove that we must continuously strive toward ensuring our patient care is culturally humble and inclusive,” says senior author Jaya Aysola, an associate professor of general internal medicine and executive director of the Penn Medicine Center for Health Equity Advancement. “While we have clear standards from the Americans with Disabilities Act, they should be the floor that medical professionals build upon, not the ceiling we strive for. We are seeing where great strides need to be made.”

Read more at Penn Medicine News.