Racial and class prejudice of experience in sickle cell disease

Abstract

This study aimed to understand the manifestations of racial and class discrimination that occur with people who experience sickle cell disease. Descriptive study with qualitative approach. The study included 33 people. The analysis corpus consisted of recording the narratives and field observations in the Research Diary. The results showed that the prejudice in health often manifests itself through institutional racism. In the socioeconomic sphere, people who experiencing the grievance often have lower income, partly due to racism itself, and also because of the limitations that illness impose. We showed that the quality of service and infrastructure of health services is directly related to color and social class of users. With this study, we more deeply understand this social phenomenon in health, allowing the development of measures to resolve this situation of violation of human rights. Thus, it is suggested to further studies focusing on the social implications of sickle cell disease, aiming to improve the quality of health services to this population.