Barriers to formal care utilization among African American primary caregivers: Perceived stigma, discriminatory beliefs, religious commitment, and distrust

Despite recent interventions to help them with their caregiving needs, African American families are continuing to go at the caregiving task alone rather than seek services outside the family to help them. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore reasons why African Americans tend to underutilize formal care services by using a modified version of the Andersen Behavioral Model of Health Service Utilization to examine predisposing factors such as perceived stigma, discriminatory beliefs, religious commitment, and distrust of the health care system. A correlational research design guided the study whereby data was collected from approximately 111 African American primary caregivers who attended church services throughout metropolitan areas. Data was collected from four questionnaires and was analyzed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's rho correlation, and multiple regression analysis using SPSS. The findings from this study contribute to social change by identifying several variables as predictors of potential utilization of formal care services. They also expand the existing literature regarding African Americans and caregiving by providing insight into the cultural and historical aspects that have impacted their decision to use resources outside the family to help them care for their loved ones. More specifically, it will help the human service professionals to develop better policies and procedures and more efficiently put health can plans and recommendation in place that are surrounded around cultural competency in the area of understanding the historical context of families and will help to further educate the African American community about resources to help them with their caregiving needs.