524 Overwork – a concept to grasp implications of health inequities for minoritized patients

Abstract EP2.2, e-Poster Terminal 2, September 3, 2025, 13:05 - 14:00 Aims Research shows that ‘race’ and ethnicity are paramount to health inequities which is connected to racism, xenophobia, and discrimination. Health inequities also arise in access to healthcare and access is negotiated in the social interactions within a hospital context. In here, access to healthcare rely on perceived legitimacy as healthcare recipients, which require work by patients. What workings did ethnically minoritized patients engage in during hospitalization to create legitimacy in access to healthcare? Methodology An ethnographic study from May 2021 – January 2022 in orthopedic departments in two Danish hospitals including participant observations, conversations, and interactions with patients (n = 13) and their relatives (n = 6), as well as with the hospital staff, including nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and radiographers (n = 79). Results All the patients had experiences of receiving inadequate or discriminatory healthcare that they connected to their ethnicised markers of, for example, Muslimness, language, physical appearance or perceived different culture. These experiences were consequential as it caused the patients to work towards avoiding societal and political discourses as potentially problematized. To capture the comprehensive and exhausting impact of having to work towards creating legitimacy, we propose the concept of (over)work. Conclusion (Over)work is as a theoretical and analytical concept to grasp and elucidate the active yet subtle and covert workings for patients placed in the margins of healthcare. For ethnically minoritized patients, the overwork is closely connected to discourses on Danishness, ethnicity and (the right to) universal healthcare. Ultimately, working towards reducing patients’ overwork is a concrete tool to work towards reducing health inequities in access to healthcare. Publication Halberg, N., Larsen, T. S., & Holen, M. (2024). Overwork as a concept to understand health inequities for ethnicised patients in health care. Sociology of Health & Illness