Traylor, Ana H.Schmittdiel, Julie A.Uratsu, Connie S.Mangione, Carol M.Subramanian, Usha2020-04-302020-04-302010-06-23Traylor, A.H., Schmittdiel, J.A., Uratsu, C.S. et al. Adherence to Cardiovascular Disease Medications: Does Patient-Provider Race/Ethnicity and Language Concordance Matter?. J GEN INTERN MED 25, 1172–1177 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-010-1424-8https://hdl.handle.net/1805/22674BACKGROUND: Patient–physician race/ethnicity and language concordance may improve medication adherence and reduce disparities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) by fostering trust and improved patient–physician communication. OBJECTIVE: To examine the association of patient race/ethnicity and language and patient–physician race/ethnicity and language concordance on medication adherence rates for a large cohort of diabetes patients in an integrated delivery system. DESIGN: We studied 131,277 adult diabetes patients in Kaiser Permanente Northern California in 2005. Probit models assessed the effect of patient and physician race/ethnicity and language on adherence to CVD medications, after controlling for patient and physician characteristics. RESULTS: Ten percent of African American, 11 % of Hispanic, 63% of Asian, and 47% of white patients had same race/ethnicity physicians.24% of Spanish-speaking patients were linguistically concordant with their physicians. African American (46%), Hispanic (49%) and Asian (52%) patients were significantly less likely than white patients (58%) to be in good adherence to all of their CVD medications (p<0.001). Spanish-speaking patients were less likely than English speaking patients to be in good adherence (51%versus 57%, p<0.001). Race concordance for African American patients was associated with adherence to all their CVD medications (53% vs. 50%, p<0.05). Language concordance was associated with medication adherence for Spanish-speaking patients (51% vs. 45%, p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Increasing opportunities for patient– physician race/ethnicity and language concordance may improve medication adherence for African American and Spanish-speaking patients, though a similar effect was not observed for Asian patients or Englishproficient Hispanic patients.en-USAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 InternationalDiabetesRacial/ethnic and linguistic health disparitiesMedication adherenceCardiovascular risk factor controlRace/ethnic and language concordanceRacial/ethnic minority healthMedical workforce diversityArticle