The Association of Patient-Provider Language Concordance with Healthcare Comprehension Among Mexican-origin Latino/as in Oregon

Objective: To understand the local Mexican-origin Latino community’s preference for bilingual health care providers and understand the relationship between language concordant care and comprehension of a healthcare visit. Background: Language barriers in healthcare negatively impact quality of care. Language concordant care (where a health care provider speaks the patient’s language) has been shown to result in better patient comprehension than using interpreters/translators. Study Design: This is a cross sectional study in collaboration with the General Consulate of Mexico. We developed a 20-item survey that includes questions about socio-demographics, an acculturation scale, and questions regarding language concordant care experience and preferences. Participants were aged 18 or older who had a healthcare visit within the past 12 months. We used descriptive and multivariable statistics to describe our sample and test the association of language concordant care and comprehension of the healthcare visit. Results We recruited 505 participants who all completed the survey in Spanish. Overall, 93.5% reported preference for a language concordant provider and 32.9% reported receipt of such care. Of those who reported a concordant provider visit, 87% reported a regular source of care compared to 50% among those with a discordant provider (p<0.001). In multivariable analyses, patients with a concordant provider had higher odds of understanding everything their provider said (aOR = 10.53 (95% CI: 6.60-16.81). Conclusion There is a gap between the preference for language concordant providers and the receipt of this type of health care for Oregon Latinos. Increasing access to language concordant care can contribute to improving health care quality, equity, and outcomes for Latinos in Oregon.