PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - R. Henry Olaisen AU - Mark D. Schluchter AU - Susan A. Flocke AU - Kathleen A. Smyth AU - Siran M. Koroukian AU - Kurt C. Stange TI - Assessing the Longitudinal Impact of Physician-Patient Relationship on Functional Health AID - 10.1370/afm.2554 DP - 2020 Sep 01 TA - The Annals of Family Medicine PG - 422--429 VI - 18 IP - 5 4099 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/5/422.short 4100 - http://www.annfammed.org/content/18/5/422.full SO - Ann Fam Med2020 Sep 01; 18 AB - PURPOSE Access to a usual source of care is associated with improved health outcomes, but research on how the physician-patient relationship affects a patient’s health, particularly long-term, is limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the longitudinal effect of changes in the physician-patient relationship on functional health.METHODS We conducted a prospective cohort study using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS, 2015-2016). The outcome was 1-year change in functional health (12-Item Short-Form Survey). The predictors were quality of physician-patient relationship, and changes in this relationship, operationalized with the MEPS Primary Care (MEPS-PC) Relationship subscale, a composite measure with preliminary evidence of reliability and validity. Confounders included age, sex, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, insurance status, US region, and multimorbidity. We conducted analyses with survey-weighted, covariate-adjusted, predicted marginal means, used to calculate Cohen effect estimates. We tested differences in trajectories with multiple pairwise comparisons with Tukey contrasts.RESULTS Improved physician-patient relationships were associated with improved functional health, whereas worsened physician-patient relationships were associated with worsened functional health, with 1-year effect estimates ranging from 0.05 (95% CI, 0-0.10) to 0.08 (95% CI, 0.02-0.13) compared with −0.16 (95% CI, −0.35 to −0.03) to −0.33 (95% CI, −0.47 to −0.02), respectively.CONCLUSION The quality of the physician-patient relationship is positively associated with functional health. These findings could inform health care strategies and health policy aimed at improving patient-centered health outcomes.