Impact of patient-family physician language concordance on healthcare utilisation and mortality: a retrospective cohort study of home care recipients in Ontario, Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

As the world's linguistic diversity continues to increase at an unprecedented rate, a growing proportion of patients will be at risk of experiencing language barriers in primary care settings. We sought to examine whether patient-family physician language concordance in a primary care setting is associated with lower rates of hospital-based healthcare utilisation and mortality.

Methods

We conducted a population-based retrospective cohort study of 497 227 home care recipients living in Ontario, Canada. Patient language was obtained from home care assessments while physician language was obtained from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. We defined primary care as language concordant when patients and their rostered family physicians shared a mutuall

SUBMITTER: Reaume M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11812866 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature