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Disparities in Diabetes Care Quality by English Language Preference in Community Health Centers
Author(s) -
Leung Lucinda B.,
VargasBustamante Arturo,
Martinez Ana E.,
Chen Xiao,
Rodriguez Hector P.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
health services research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.706
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1475-6773
pISSN - 0017-9124
DOI - 10.1111/1475-6773.12590
Subject(s) - medicine , glycemic , preference , socioeconomic status , health care , language barrier , family medicine , community health , health equity , diabetes mellitus , gerontology , nursing , public health , environmental health , population , linguistics , philosophy , economic growth , microeconomics , economics , endocrinology
Objective To conduct a parallel analysis of disparities in diabetes care quality among Latino and Asian community health center ( CHC ) patients by English language preference. Study Setting/Data Collection Clinical outcomes (2011) and patient survey data (2012) for Type 2 diabetes adults from 14 CHC s ( n = 1,053). Study Design We estimated separate regression models for Latino and Asian patients by English language preference for Clinician & Group—Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System, Patient Assessment of Chronic Illness Care, hemoglobin A1c, and self‐reported hypoglycemic events. We used the Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition method to parse out observed and unobserved differences in outcomes between English versus non‐English language groups. Principal Findings After adjusting for socioeconomic and health characteristics, disparities in patient experiences by English language preference were found only among Asian patients. Unobserved factors largely accounted for linguistic disparities for most patient experience measures. There were no significant differences in glycemic control by language for either Latino or Asian patients. Conclusions Given the importance of patient retention in CHC s, our findings indicate opportunities to improve CHC patients' experiences of care and to reduce disparities in patient experience by English preference for Asian diabetes patients.