Patient-Provider communication with teach-back, patient-centered diabetes care, and diabetes care education.

OBJECTIVE

To examine how the teach-back, interactive communication loop between patient and provider, is utilized and its role in diabetes care delivery.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional analysis of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) 2011-2016. The study sample included US adults aged 18 or older with diabetes. Survey-design adjusted analyses were used to examine patterns of teach-back utilization across patient socioeconomic/clinical characteristics, patient-provider interactions, and diabetes care education.

RESULTS

Analysis of 2901 US adults with diabetes showed that 25.0 % reported patient teach-back experience during their visit to care. Compared with patients without teach-back, those with teach-back experience had higher scores on interaction quality with their providers (composite score: 90.8 vs. 55.8, P < .001). Those with teach-back were also more to receive additional advice on diet and exercise from providers (67.0 % vs. 60.9 %, P = 0.03) and to report that they were confident in diabetes self-care management (75.7 % vs. 70.3 %, P =0.03).

CONCLUSION

Teach-back communication appears to be effective in patient-provider interaction and diabetes care education, leading to higher confidence in self-care management.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Despite its potential, the utilization of teach-back communication is suboptimal. More effort is needed to promote effective use of teach-back communication in routine diabetes care.