Cultural Mistrust and Health Care Utilization: The Effects of a Culturally Responsive Cognitive Intervention

Abstract

Cultural mistrust is a critical factor underlying the racial/ethnic disparity in mental health care service utilization. It was hypothesized that there would be a difference in utilization attitudes and intentions before and after exposure to a culturally responsive intervention among individuals with moderate to high levels of cultural mistrust. Two Hundred Thirty-Six students from a predominately Black university participated in this study. This experiment employed a Solomon Four Groups design to assess the effectiveness of a culturally responsive cognitive intervention to neutralize the effects of cultural mistrust on health care attitudes and health care service utilization intentions. The results showed that the intervention was effective in neutralizing cultural mistrust and improving posttest utilization attitudes and intentions among individuals who had high levels of cultural mistrust. It was also found that health care utilization attitudes and intentions were enhanced for individuals with high levels of cultural mistrust.