Michelle Van Ryn
Biographic Data
| ID | 166454 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michelle Van Ryn |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Van Ryn |
| SIGNATURE | VAN RYN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4258-7319 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 687 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 12 |
Understanding medical trainees’ anti-fat dislike
Anti-fat prejudice reduction interventions in the medical training environment should 1) emphasize the importance of, and increase adherence to, positive attitudinal role modeling among faculty and residents, 2) promote body self-acceptance among trainees, and 3) provide education around the complex interplay of genetic and environmental contributors to combat blame-based stereotypes surrounding weight
Weight bias and preparedness to treat higher-weight patients
Weight stigma is widely recognized as a significant concern in healthcare. Studies indicate that as medical trainees advance through their training, their levels of weight bias may intensify. Such prejudices can lead to inferior care for higher-weight patients, underscoring the urgency for research that identifies factors that are protective against the development of weight bias. Prior findings have shown that the motivation to respond without p…
Mandated Implicit Bias Training for Health Professionals—A Step Toward Equity in Health Care
This JAMA Forum discusses ways that mandated implicit bias training for health professionals can focus on specific clinical areas and populations, advance the evidence base on the effective elements of implicit bias training, and establish qualifications for trainers
The Value of Interracial Contact for Reducing Anti-Black Bias Among Non-Black Physicians
Although scholars have long studied circumstances that shape prejudice, inquiry into factors associated with long-term prejudice reduction has been more limited. Using a 6-year longitudinal study of non-Black physicians in training ( N = 3,134), we examined the effect of three medical-school factors-interracial contact, medical-school environment, and diversity training-on explicit and implicit racial bias measured during medical residency. When …
Contact and role modeling predict bias against lesbian and gay individuals among early-career physicians
Racial and Ethnic Variation in Perceptions of VA Mental Health Providers are Associated With Treatment Retention Among Veterans With PTSD
BACKGROUND: Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who seek mental health care in the Veterans Health Administration frequently discontinue treatment prematurely. Early discontinuation of mental health treatment is more common among Veterans with PTSD who are of minority race or ethnicity. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether retention in individual therapy or pharmacotherapy among Veterans with PTSD are associated with patients' ratings …
Beyond generalized sexual prejudice
Informal Training Experiences and Explicit Bias against African Americans among Medical Students
Despite the widespread inclusion of diversity-related curricula in US medical training, racial disparities in the quality of care and physician bias in medical treatment persist. The present study examined the effects of both formal and informal experiences on non-African American medical students' ( N =2922) attitudes toward African Americans in a longitudinal study of 49 randomly selected US medical schools. We assessed the effects experiences …
The Impact of Everyday Discrimination and Racial Identity Centrality on African American Medical Student Well-Being
Racial Identity and Mental Well-Being
Medical School Experiences Associated with Change in Implicit Racial Bias Among 3547 Students
BACKGROUND: Physician implicit (unconscious, automatic) bias has been shown to contribute to racial disparities in medical care. The impact of medical education on implicit racial bias is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between change in student implicit racial bias towards African Americans and student reports on their experiences with 1) formal curricula related to disparities in health and health care, cultural competence, and/o…
Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity
The objective of this study was to critically review the empirical evidence from all relevant disciplines regarding obesity stigma in order to (i) determine the implications of obesity stigma for healthcare providers and their patients with obesity and (ii) identify strategies to improve care for patients with obesity. We conducted a search of M edline and PsychInfo for all peer‐reviewed papers presenting original empirical data relevant to stigm…
Do Contact and Empathy Mitigate Bias Against Gay and Lesbian People Among Heterosexual First-Year Medical Students? A Report From the Medical Student CHANGE Study
PURPOSE: A recent Institute of Medicine report concluded that lesbian and gay individuals face discrimination from health care providers and called for research on provider attitudes. Medical school is a critical juncture for improving future providers' treatment of sexual minorities. This study examined both explicit bias and implicit bias against lesbian women and gay men among first-year medical students, focusing on two predictors of such bia…
Minority Primary Care Patients With Depression
BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Racial and ethnic disparities in depression incidence, prevalence, treatment, and outcomes still persist. The hypothesis of this study was that use of collaborative care management (CCM) in treating depressed primary care patients would decrease racial disparities in 6-month clinical outcomes compared with those patients treated with usual primary care (UC). RESEARCH DESIGN/SUBJECTS: In a retrospective chart review analysis…
Mental Well-Being in First Year Medical Students
Utilization of Hospital-Based Chaplain Services Among Newly Diagnosed Male Veterans Affairs Colorectal Cancer Patients
Proactive tobacco treatment for low income smokers
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01123967
The joint effect of bias awareness and self-reported prejudice on intergroup anxiety and intentions for intergroup contact
Two correlational studies investigated the joint effect of bias awareness-a new individual difference measure that assesses Whites' awareness and concern about their propensity to be biased-and prejudice on Whites' intergroup anxiety and intended intergroup contact. Using a community sample (Study 1), we found the predicted Bias Awareness × Prejudice interaction. Prejudice was more strongly related to interracial anxiety among those high (vs. low…
Smoking Cessation Among African American and White Smokers in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System
Objectives. We examined whether a proactive care smoking cessation intervention designed to overcome barriers to treatment would be especially effective at increasing cessation among African Americans receiving care in the Veterans Health Administration. Methods. We analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial, the Veterans Victory over Tobacco study, involving a population-based electronic registry of current smokers (702 African Americans, …
Population-based tobacco treatment
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00608426
The Impact of Racism on Clinician Cognition, Behavior, and Clinical Decision Making
Over the past two decades, thousands of studies have demonstrated that Blacks receive lower quality medical care than Whites, independent of disease status, setting, insurance, and other clinically relevant factors. Despite this, there has been little progress towards eradicating these inequities. Almost a decade ago we proposed a conceptual model identifying mechanisms through which clinicians' behavior, cognition, and decision making might be i…
Stereotype Threat and Health Disparities
White doctors and nurses on racial inequality in health care in the USA
In this paper we report on an interdisciplinary project interviewing doctors and nurses about racial inequality in health care in the USA. We analysed data from interviews with twenty-two white doctors and nurses in which they were asked to offer explanations for racial inequality in health care. Results provide insight into how whiteness operates to provide white patients more often with appropriate health care and how colour-blind ideology can …
The Association between Perceived Discrimination and Underutilization of Needed Medical and Mental Health Care in a Multi-Ethnic Community Sample
This study examines the association between perceived discrimination and underutilization of needed medical and mental health care, in a representative, multi-ethnic community sample. Data were derived from a cross sectional survey of 10,098 White, U.S.-born Black, African-born Black, American Indian, Hispanic, and Southeast Asian adults in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, health care acces…
Patient race and physicians' decisions to prescribe opioids for chronic low back pain
The effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians' perceptions of patients
The Association between Perceived Discrimination and Underutilization of Needed Medical and Mental Health Care in a Multi-Ethnic Community Sample
This study examines the association between perceived discrimination and underutilization of needed medical and mental health care, in a representative, multi-ethnic community sample. Data were derived from a cross sectional survey of 10,098 White, U.S.-born Black, African-born Black, American Indian, Hispanic, and Southeast Asian adults in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, health care acces…
Paved With Good Intentions
There is extensive evidence of racial/ethnic disparities in receipt of health care. The potential contribution of provider behavior to such disparities has remained largely unexplored. Do health and human service providers behave in ways that contribute to systematic inequities in care and outcomes? If so, why does this occur? The authors build on existing evidence to provide an integrated, coherent, and sound approach to research on providers’ c…
The Impact of Racism on Clinician Cognition, Behavior, and Clinical Decision Making
Over the past two decades, thousands of studies have demonstrated that Blacks receive lower quality medical care than Whites, independent of disease status, setting, insurance, and other clinically relevant factors. Despite this, there has been little progress towards eradicating these inequities. Almost a decade ago we proposed a conceptual model identifying mechanisms through which clinicians' behavior, cognition, and decision making might be i…
Physicians’ Perceptions of Patients’ Social and Behavioral Characteristics and Race Disparities in Treatment Recommendations for Men With Coronary Artery Disease
Objectives. A growing body of evidence suggests that provider decisionmaking contributes to racial/ethnic disparities in care. We examined the factors mediating the relationship between patient race/ethnicity and provider recommendations for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Methods. Analyses were conducted with a data set that included medical record, angiogram, and provider survey data on postangiogram encounters with patients who were cate…
Social support and undermining in close relationships
Structural equation analyses were used to examine the impact of social support vs. social undermining (conflict) on mental health in longitudinal data from 1,087 recently unemployed respondents. The results demonstrated that social support and social undermining were not the opposite poles of the same factor, each having some impact independent of the other. Social undermining had statistically significant and strong adverse impact at each concur…
Patient race and physicians' decisions to prescribe opioids for chronic low back pain
Impact of a Preventive Job Search Intervention on the Likelihood of Depression Among the Unemployed
Drawing on coping resources theory, we evaluate the impact of a job search intervention on depressive symptoms in a randomized field experiment at three follow-up periods covering two and one-half years. Baseline depressive symptoms, low social assertiveness, and financial hardship were identified as significant risk variables predicting depressive symptoms at follow-up. These variables then were used to identify high- and low-risk individuals in…
Beyond generalized sexual prejudice
White doctors and nurses on racial inequality in health care in the USA
In this paper we report on an interdisciplinary project interviewing doctors and nurses about racial inequality in health care in the USA. We analysed data from interviews with twenty-two white doctors and nurses in which they were asked to offer explanations for racial inequality in health care. Results provide insight into how whiteness operates to provide white patients more often with appropriate health care and how colour-blind ideology can …
Race, socioeconomic status, and the perceived importance of positive self-presentation in health care
The Impact of Everyday Discrimination and Racial Identity Centrality on African American Medical Student Well-Being
The Value of Interracial Contact for Reducing Anti-Black Bias Among Non-Black Physicians
Although scholars have long studied circumstances that shape prejudice, inquiry into factors associated with long-term prejudice reduction has been more limited. Using a 6-year longitudinal study of non-Black physicians in training ( N = 3,134), we examined the effect of three medical-school factors-interracial contact, medical-school environment, and diversity training-on explicit and implicit racial bias measured during medical residency. When …
Informal Training Experiences and Explicit Bias against African Americans among Medical Students
Despite the widespread inclusion of diversity-related curricula in US medical training, racial disparities in the quality of care and physician bias in medical treatment persist. The present study examined the effects of both formal and informal experiences on non-African American medical students' ( N =2922) attitudes toward African Americans in a longitudinal study of 49 randomly selected US medical schools. We assessed the effects experiences …
How did it work? An examination of the mechanisms through which an intervention for the unemployed promoted job‐search behavior
Conducted process analysis of treatment mediation effects (Judd & Kenney, 1981) on longitudinal data from a large randomized field experiment with 928 recently unemployed persons. The experimental treatment included an intervention that succeeded in promoting quality reemployment outcomes, as described in earlier reports (Caplan et al., 1989; Vinokur et al., 1991). Using Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1988), the analyses examine…
Mental Well-Being in First Year Medical Students
The joint effect of bias awareness and self-reported prejudice on intergroup anxiety and intentions for intergroup contact
Two correlational studies investigated the joint effect of bias awareness-a new individual difference measure that assesses Whites' awareness and concern about their propensity to be biased-and prejudice on Whites' intergroup anxiety and intended intergroup contact. Using a community sample (Study 1), we found the predicted Bias Awareness × Prejudice interaction. Prejudice was more strongly related to interracial anxiety among those high (vs. low…
Contact and role modeling predict bias against lesbian and gay individuals among early-career physicians
Racial Identity and Mental Well-Being
Smoking Cessation Among African American and White Smokers in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System
Objectives. We examined whether a proactive care smoking cessation intervention designed to overcome barriers to treatment would be especially effective at increasing cessation among African Americans receiving care in the Veterans Health Administration. Methods. We analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial, the Veterans Victory over Tobacco study, involving a population-based electronic registry of current smokers (702 African Americans, …
Job seeking, reemployment, and mental health
Cognitive theories of adherence to difficult courses of action and findings from previous survey research on coping with a major life event--job loss--were used to generate a preventive intervention, tested by a randomized field experiment. The aim was to prevent poor mental health and loss of motivation to seek reemployment among those who continued to be unemployed and to promote high-quality reemployment. Ss were 928 recently unemployed adults…
How did it work? An examination of the mechanisms through which an intervention for the unemployed promoted job‐search behavior
Conducted process analysis of treatment mediation effects (Judd & Kenney, 1981) on longitudinal data from a large randomized field experiment with 928 recently unemployed persons. The experimental treatment included an intervention that succeeded in promoting quality reemployment outcomes, as described in earlier reports (Caplan et al., 1989; Vinokur et al., 1991). Using Ajzen's theory of planned behavior (Ajzen, 1985, 1988), the analyses examine…
Impact of a Preventive Job Search Intervention on the Likelihood of Depression Among the Unemployed
Drawing on coping resources theory, we evaluate the impact of a job search intervention on depressive symptoms in a randomized field experiment at three follow-up periods covering two and one-half years. Baseline depressive symptoms, low social assertiveness, and financial hardship were identified as significant risk variables predicting depressive symptoms at follow-up. These variables then were used to identify high- and low-risk individuals in…
Social support and undermining in close relationships
Structural equation analyses were used to examine the impact of social support vs. social undermining (conflict) on mental health in longitudinal data from 1,087 recently unemployed respondents. The results demonstrated that social support and social undermining were not the opposite poles of the same factor, each having some impact independent of the other. Social undermining had statistically significant and strong adverse impact at each concur…
Access to Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery by Race/Ethnicity and Gender Among Patients Who Are Appropriate for Surgery
OBJECTIVE: The study sought to determine if there were race/ethnicity or gender differences in access to coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery among patients who have been designated as appropriate and as necessary for that surgery according to the RAND methodology. METHODS: RAND appropriateness and necessity criteria were used to identify a race/gender stratified sample of postangiography patients who would benefit from coronary artery byp…
The effect of patient race and socio-economic status on physicians' perceptions of patients
Research on the Provider Contribution to Race/Ethnicity Disparities in Medical Care
OBJECTIVE: Little is known about why black patients and other ethnic/racial minorities are less likely to receive the best treatments independent of clinical appropriateness, payer, and treatment site. Although both provider and patient behavior have been suggested as possible explanatory factors, the potential role of provider behavior has remained largely unexplored. Does provider behavior contribute to systematic inequities? If so, why? The pu…
Paved With Good Intentions
There is extensive evidence of racial/ethnic disparities in receipt of health care. The potential contribution of provider behavior to such disparities has remained largely unexplored. Do health and human service providers behave in ways that contribute to systematic inequities in care and outcomes? If so, why does this occur? The authors build on existing evidence to provide an integrated, coherent, and sound approach to research on providers’ c…
Racial Disparities in VA Service Connection for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Disability
BACKGROUND: "Service connected" veterans are those with documented, compensative conditions related to or aggravated by military service, and they receive priority for enrollment into the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system. For some veterans, service connection represents the difference between access to VA health care facilities and no access. OBJECTIVES: To determine whether there are racial discrepancies in the granting of service connec…
Why do providers contribute to disparities and what can be done about it?
Physicians’ Perceptions of Patients’ Social and Behavioral Characteristics and Race Disparities in Treatment Recommendations for Men With Coronary Artery Disease
Objectives. A growing body of evidence suggests that provider decisionmaking contributes to racial/ethnic disparities in care. We examined the factors mediating the relationship between patient race/ethnicity and provider recommendations for coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Methods. Analyses were conducted with a data set that included medical record, angiogram, and provider survey data on postangiogram encounters with patients who were cate…
Race, socioeconomic status, and the perceived importance of positive self-presentation in health care
Effects of Perceived Discrimination on Mental Health and Mental Health Services Utilization Among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Persons
OBJECTIVES: Previous research has found that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals are at risk for a variety of mental health disorders. We examined the extent to which a recent experience of a major discriminatory event may contribute to poor mental health among LGBT persons. METHODS: Data were derived from a cross-sectional strata-cluster survey of adults in Hennepin County, Minnesota, who identified as LGBT (n=472) or heter…
The Association between Perceived Discrimination and Underutilization of Needed Medical and Mental Health Care in a Multi-Ethnic Community Sample
This study examines the association between perceived discrimination and underutilization of needed medical and mental health care, in a representative, multi-ethnic community sample. Data were derived from a cross sectional survey of 10,098 White, U.S.-born Black, African-born Black, American Indian, Hispanic, and Southeast Asian adults in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Even after controlling for socio-demographic characteristics, health care acces…
Patient race and physicians' decisions to prescribe opioids for chronic low back pain
Stereotype Threat and Health Disparities
White doctors and nurses on racial inequality in health care in the USA
In this paper we report on an interdisciplinary project interviewing doctors and nurses about racial inequality in health care in the USA. We analysed data from interviews with twenty-two white doctors and nurses in which they were asked to offer explanations for racial inequality in health care. Results provide insight into how whiteness operates to provide white patients more often with appropriate health care and how colour-blind ideology can …
The Impact of Racism on Clinician Cognition, Behavior, and Clinical Decision Making
Over the past two decades, thousands of studies have demonstrated that Blacks receive lower quality medical care than Whites, independent of disease status, setting, insurance, and other clinically relevant factors. Despite this, there has been little progress towards eradicating these inequities. Almost a decade ago we proposed a conceptual model identifying mechanisms through which clinicians' behavior, cognition, and decision making might be i…
Population-based tobacco treatment
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00608426
Utilization of Hospital-Based Chaplain Services Among Newly Diagnosed Male Veterans Affairs Colorectal Cancer Patients
Proactive tobacco treatment for low income smokers
ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01123967
The joint effect of bias awareness and self-reported prejudice on intergroup anxiety and intentions for intergroup contact
Two correlational studies investigated the joint effect of bias awareness-a new individual difference measure that assesses Whites' awareness and concern about their propensity to be biased-and prejudice on Whites' intergroup anxiety and intended intergroup contact. Using a community sample (Study 1), we found the predicted Bias Awareness × Prejudice interaction. Prejudice was more strongly related to interracial anxiety among those high (vs. low…
Smoking Cessation Among African American and White Smokers in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System
Objectives. We examined whether a proactive care smoking cessation intervention designed to overcome barriers to treatment would be especially effective at increasing cessation among African Americans receiving care in the Veterans Health Administration. Methods. We analyzed data from a randomized controlled trial, the Veterans Victory over Tobacco study, involving a population-based electronic registry of current smokers (702 African Americans, …
Medical School Experiences Associated with Change in Implicit Racial Bias Among 3547 Students
BACKGROUND: Physician implicit (unconscious, automatic) bias has been shown to contribute to racial disparities in medical care. The impact of medical education on implicit racial bias is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between change in student implicit racial bias towards African Americans and student reports on their experiences with 1) formal curricula related to disparities in health and health care, cultural competence, and/o…
Impact of weight bias and stigma on quality of care and outcomes for patients with obesity
The objective of this study was to critically review the empirical evidence from all relevant disciplines regarding obesity stigma in order to (i) determine the implications of obesity stigma for healthcare providers and their patients with obesity and (ii) identify strategies to improve care for patients with obesity. We conducted a search of M edline and PsychInfo for all peer‐reviewed papers presenting original empirical data relevant to stigm…
Medicine (30 works) · Psychology (29 works) · Psychiatry (20 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Clinical Psychology (15 works) · Family medicine (15 works) · Racial and Ethnic Identity Research (15 works) · Health care (14 works) · Social Psychology (13 works) · Medical Education and Admissions (9 works)