Do doctors contribute to the demographic patterning of diseases?- A Comparison study between Germany, The Netherlands and Indonesia about the effect of race and age on physician's recommendation

Western populations are facing two major challenges today: The integration of the aging population and the increasing amount of immigrants into society. Not just the number of immigrants increases, but also the composition of all demographic cohorts, resulting in new consolidated minorities: elderly and race groups. An increase in the number of minority groups can raise prejudice against them based on the majority’s fear of the increasing importance of the minority which in turn can lead to greater discrimination against the minorities.Given that the forms of discrimination manifested by different groups will depend on perceived cultural norms acquired through personal experience and socialization, developing countries may experience discriminatory behavior towards usthe elderly and migrants quite differently, than Western countries. Discrimination in health care is one of the worst, since health is directly related to mortality. Thus, this project aimed at comparing ageism and racism in medical treatment between Germany, The Netherlands (as Western countries) and Indonesia (as a developing country). Video-based experiments were conducted with 480 physicians, who were evaluating the video showing a physician-patient conversation. As expected patients were evaluated differently depending on their age and race.