Patients without traditional support systems, and the doctors who stereotype them

<p>"When doctors ignore the evidence showing that a support system doesn’t have to be traditional in order to be effective, that’s not a medical judgment. It’s a personal prejudice that puts singles at serious risk.</p> <p>Classifying patients as married or unmarried when studying the effects of social support undoubtedly makes research easier, with groups determined by a simplistic either-or. But since social support is not, in fact, limited to marriage, the results of such studies are bound to be flawed — not to mention perpetuating discriminatory treatment that can cost single people our lives."</p> <p><a href="https://dehumanities.org/speaker/joan-delfattore/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Joan DelFattore</a> is a writer.</p> <p>She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "<a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/11/patients-without-partners-doctors-stereotype-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Patients without partners, and the doctors who stereotype us</a>." (<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/11/patients-without-partners-doctors-stereotype-us.html">https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2016/11/patients-without-partners-doctors-stereotype-us.html</a>)</p>