By Vincent Lim
A study by William A. Vega, the executive director of the Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging at the USC School of Social Work, and other researchers found that foreign-born Latino patients had a more positive perception of health-care quality when clinical service providers spoke to them in the same language.
The recently published study in The Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine also found that these higher ratings for health-care quality could not be explained by socioeconomic factors. When patient and provider spoke a concordant language, foreign-born Latinos reported less confusion and frustration with the information received from clinicians and better overall ratings of health-care quality.
“This [study] makes a strong point that when patient and clinicians do not speak the same language, there are negative consequences for the patient,” Vega said.
One in five Americans speaks a language other than English at home, and some speak little or no English. Latinos are the largest and fastest-growing ethnic/racial group in the United States, and the U.S. Census projects that about one-third of the nation’s population will be Latino by the year 2050.