This US-based study sought to determine the extent to which implicit racial/ethnic bias exists among health care professionals and examine the relationships between health care professionals’ implicit attitudes about racial/ethnic groups and health care outcomes. The study explains that implicit attitudes are thoughts and feelings that often exist outside of conscious awareness, and thus are difficult to consciously acknowledge and control. Such attitudes are often automatically activated and can influence human behaviour without conscious volition. A search of 10 computerised bibliographic databases identified 15 studies for review, almost all of which used cross-sectional designs, convenience sampling, US participants, and the Implicit Association Test to assess implicit bias. In 14 studies, there was evidence of low to moderate levels of implicit racial/ethnic bias among health care professionals; similar implicit bias scores to those in the general population. Levels of implicit bias against Black, Hispanic/Latino/Latina, and dark-skinned people were relatively similar across these groups. Although some associations between implicit bias and health care outcomes were nonsignificant, results also showed that implicit bias was significantly related to patient–provider interactions, treatment decisions, treatment adherence, and patient health outcomes. Implicit attitudes were more often significantly related to patient-provider interactions and health outcomes than treatment processes.
