TOPLINE:

A study found that racially minoritized families perceived multiple barriers to accessing pediatric dermatology care, including unfamiliarity with dermatology, challenges with healthcare navigation and socioeconomic factors, and uncertainty about insurance coverage.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted semistructured interviews with 32 parents (87.50% women; mean age, 38.88 years) of racially minoritized children at a pediatric dermatology clinic at an academic children’s hospital between November 2023 and January 2024. Of them, 37.5% of participants were American Indian or Alaska Native, 34.38% were Black, 43.75% Hispanic, and 12.5% were White.
• Interviews lasted 30-60 minutes, were conducted in English or Spanish via videoconference or telephone, and focused on communication preferences and experiences accessing pediatric dermatology care.
• Researchers assessed audio-recorded, professionally transcribed interviews using a reflexive, team-based inductive thematic approach and organized emergent themes with the Social Ecological Model into barriers and facilitators (across individual, interpersonal, organizational, community, and policy levels).

TAKEAWAY:

• Families reported unfamiliarity with dermatology and a perception that skin care is nonessential or cosmetic, which commonly delayed care-seeking and referrals at both the individual and community levels.
• Poor clinician communication, perceived disrespect, and limited racial/ethnic representation undermined trust and led some families to avoid or discontinue care; several parents emphasized that respectful, validating communication mattered more than racial concordance alone.
• Long appointment wait times, difficult clinic navigation, cost concerns, uncertainty about insurance coverage, and transportation challenges created practical barriers to accessing specialty care.
• Themes that were facilitators to care included strong parental advocacy, referrals from primary care, interpreter services, teledermatology for follow-up, community outreach and social media normalization, and adequate insurance coverage.

IN PRACTICE:

“This qualitative study identified barriers and facilitators to pediatric dermatology care from the perspective of minoritized families,” the authors wrote. “We identified factors that motivate or dissuade families and outlined recommendations to build more inclusive, accessible systems,” they added, noting that the study “also identified several neutral factors (eg, health literacy, understanding of team-based care, racial concordance with clinicians, and technology-based systems) that, at times, functioned as either barriers or facilitators depending on the level of support provided, underscoring the context-dependent nature of these factors.”

SOURCE:

This study was led by Elizabeth Garcia-Creighton and Molly Thapar Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado Anschutz, Aurora, Colorado, and was published online on April 8, 2026 in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

This study was conducted at a single academic pediatric dermatology clinic, which limited generalizability to community-based or nonacademic settings. Additionally, families not engaged with pediatric dermatology were likely underrepresented.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the Culshaw Foundation and the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance. Thapar and another author disclosed receiving grants from the Pediatric Dermatology Research Alliance and the Culshaw Foundation during the conduct of the study. No other disclosures were reported.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.