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Medical Avoidance Among Marginalized Groups: The Impact Of The Covid‑19 Pandemic, Amani R. Holder‑Dixon, Olivia R. Adams, Tianna L. Cobb, Alison J. Goldberg, Rachel A. Fikslin, Mora A. Reinka, Amanda N. Gesselman, Devon M. Price

Publications and Research

Medical avoidance is common among U.S. adults, and may be emphasized among members of marginalized communities due to discrimination concerns. In the current study, we investigated whether this disparity in avoidance was maintained or exacerbated during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. We assessed the likelihood of avoiding medical care due to general-, discrimination-, and COVID-19-related concerns in an online sample ( N = 471). As hypothesized, marginalized groups (i.e., non-White race, Latinx/e ethnicity, non-heterosexual sexual orientation, high BMI) endorsed more general- and discrimina - tion-related medical avoidance than majoritized groups. However, marginalized groups were equally likely to seek COVID-19 …