A growing body of evidence has documented the effects of discrimination among Latinos. However, little is known about the impacts a noxious sociopolitical climate can have on their health and health care outcomes. The present study explored the associations between perceived anti-immigrant climate, health care discrimination, and satisfaction with care among US Latino adults. We used data from the 2015 Latino National Health and Immigration Survey (n = 1,284), a nationally representative sample of US Latino adults (ages 18 and older). Key predictors included living in a state whose policies are unfavorable towards immigrants, perceived anti-immigrant climate and/or anti-Hispanic climate, and health care discrimination. Ordered logistic regression models evaluated the associations between these predictors (adjusting for other relevant covariates) and satisfaction with care. Latinos living in state that is unfavorable towards immigrants were less likely to be satisfied with medical care they receive. Also, we found that Latinos living in anti-immigrant and anti-Hispanic climates were less likely to be satisfied with care. In both cases, experiencing health care discrimination significantly reduced the odds of satisfaction with care. Latinos' perception of an anti-immigrant & anti-Hispanic climate and state policies can have detrimental effects on their health and health care outcomes. These results highlight the importance of addressing both community-wide and interpersonal discrimination specific to health care settings, which can have concurrent impacts on the health and well-being of Latino and other minoritized populations.
Keywords: Health Care Discrimination; Health Disparities; Latino Populations; Perceived Anti-Immigrant Climate; Satisfaction with Care.
© 2023. The Author(s).