Measuring patients' perceptions of communication with healthcare providers: Do differences in demographic and socioeconomic characteristics matter?

National governments across the globe have set goals to improve healthcare delivery. Understanding patient-provider communication is essential for the development of policies that measure how well a healthcare system delivers care. This study was designed to determine which, if any, demographic factors were independently associated with how US patients perceive various aspects of communication with their healthcare providers. The study was a secondary, cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative data from the 2002 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Among US adults with a healthcare visit in the past year (n = approximately 16 700), we assessed the association between several covariate demographic and socioeconomic factors and four dependent measures of patient perceptions of communication with their healthcare providers. Across all four measures of communication, older patients were more likely to report positively. Having health insurance and a usual source of care were consistent predictors of positive perceptions of communication. Hispanic patients also reported better perceptions of communication across all four measures. The most economically disadvantaged patients were less likely to report that providers always explained things so that they understood. Male patients were more likely to report that providers always spent enough time with them. This study suggests that patient perceptions of communication in healthcare settings vary widely by demographics and other individual patient characteristics. In this paper, we discuss the relevance of these communication disparities to design policies to improve healthcare systems, both at the individual practice level and the national level.