Effective communication is key to delivering high quality healthcare. Effective communication improves patient adherence to treatment1 and clinical outcomes,2 and poor communication has been associated with a lack of a shared understanding of a child’s health plan3 and higher parent-reported medical errors.4 Cross-sectional studies have demonstrated that Spanish-speaking caregivers report lower satisfaction with physician communication than English-speaking caregivers.5, 6 However, less is known about how communication satisfaction changes over time by language group and what factors modify satisfaction over time.

Children of Spanish-speaking families experience more delays in care, spend less time with their clinician,7 are less likely to have a medical home, and receive fewer specialty referrals and testing.8 They also experience high rates of poverty and obesity.9 Given the significant health challenges facing children of Spanish-speaking caregivers, delivery of high-quality care through effective communication is essential. Prior studies of communication satisfaction among Spanish-speaking caregivers have focused on caregiver satisfaction at a single visit or specified age. Our team previously reported lower satisfaction with physician communication among Spanish-speaking caregivers compared with English-speaking caregivers at the 2-month well-child visit (WCV) among participants in the Greenlight obesity prevention trial.10 There has been limited work examining how satisfaction with physician communication changes over time and how this trajectory differs by primary language.

In the current analysis of participants in the Greenlight trial, we sought to evaluate how caregiver satisfaction with physician communication changed during the first two years of WCVs and examine differences in satisfaction by primary language and key factors that may influence satisfaction, including interpreter use and physician continuity. Disparities in communication satisfaction may contribute to health disparities among minority populations and are therefore important to understand. Understanding the factors that influence satisfaction over time can help inform interventions to improve communication satisfaction.