Two recent studies examined possible links between the medical adherence rates of Latinos and whether their primary care physicians speak Spanish.
The first study analyzed data from approximately 31,000 diabetes patients in Kaiser Permanente, a managed care consortium in Oakland, California. It found that 60.2 percent of Spanish-speaking Latino patients did not adhere to their medication regimes, compared with 51.7 percent of English-speaking Latino patients. White patients had a 37.5 percent nonadherence rate. Assigning the limited-English patients to doctors who spoke Spanish did not affect the rates.
The researchers said the study “suggests that more needs to be done to improve adherence to newly prescribed medications among Latino patients at all levels of English proficiency."
The second study looked at data from more than 1,600 Kaiser patients with diabetes and limited English ability who switched doctors. Rates of glycemic control -- medical adherence -- increased by 10 percent among patients who switched to a Spanish-speaking doctor from a non-Spanish-speaking one.
"Latino patients with concordant PCPs (primary care providers) were previously shown to be twice as likely to receive counseling about diet and exercise as Latino patients with discordant PCPs,” the study's authors said. “(Limited-English-proficient) patients switching to concordant PCPs may find it easier to discuss diet and exercise recommendations or complex treatments compared with using interpreters.”
Both studies were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
