Prevalance of misdiagnosis
January 22, 2024
KFF Health News published an article with some surprising statistics about the prevalence of misdiagnosis. According to one study published in BMJ Quality & Safety, "rates of misdiagnosis range from 1.5% of heart attacks to 17.5% of strokes and 22.5% of lung cancers." Additionally, "an estimated 795,000 patients a year die or are permanently disabled because of misdiagnosis."
The article focuses on racial and gender disparities with regards to misdiagnoses, reporting that "women and racial and ethnic minorities are 20% to 30% more likely than white men to experience a misdiagnosis." Even when controlling for racial differences in access to healthcare, a study "found that Black kids with appendicitis were less likely than their white peers to be correctly diagnosed, even when both groups of patients visited the same hospital." One explanation for this disparity is that medical textbooks have centered around treating white males (e.g. "Only 4.5% of images in general medical textbooks feature patients with dark skin"), leading physicians to be less confident in their diagnoses of patients in other groups, leading to worse outcomes (e.g. waiting to see if symptoms worsen before ordering tests or prescribing treatment). There are likely other causes at play as well, but it seems that there are no quick fixes to the general problem.