Does racial concordance between HIV-positive patients and their physicians affect the time to receipt of protease inhibitors?
GROUND: Compared to whites, African Americans have been found to have greater morbidity and mortality from HIV, partly due to their lower use of effective antiretroviral therapy. Why racial disparities in antiretroviral use exist is not completely understood. We examined whether racial concordance (patients and providers having the same race) affects the time of receipt of protease inhibitors. METHODS: We analyzed data from a prospective, cohort study of a national probability sample of 1,241 adults receiving HIV care with linked data from 287 providers. We examined the association between patient-provider racial concordance and time from when the Food and Drug Administration approved the first protease inhibitor to the time when patients first received a protease inhibitor. RESULTS: In our unadjusted model, white patients received protease inhibitors much earlier than African-American patients (median 277 days compared to 439 days; P < .0001). Adjusting for patient characteristics onl
