Elisabeth Wilson|Alice H M Chen|Kevin Grumbach|Frances Wang|Alicia Fernández
Effects of limited English proficiency and physician language on health care comprehension
University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Francisco|University of California, San Francisco
objective determine effect limited english proficiency medical comprehension presence absence languageconcordant physicians design setting participants telephone survey 1200 californians conducted 11 languages survey included 4 items medical comprehension problems understanding medical situation confusion medication use trouble understanding labels medication bad reactions medications respondents also asked english proficiency whether physicians spoke native language measurements main results analyzed relationship english proficiency medical comprehension using multivariate logistic regression also performed stratified analysis explore effect physician language concordance comprehension fortynine percent 1200 respondents defined limited english proficient lep limited englishproficient respondents likely englishproficient respondents report problems understanding medical situation adjusted odds ratio aor 32confidence interval ci 21 48 trouble understanding labels aor 15ci 10 23 bad reactions aor 23ci 13 44 among respondents languageconcordant physicians lep respondents likely problems understanding medical situation aor 22ci 12 39 among languagediscordant physicians lep respondents likely report problems understanding medical situation aor 94ci 37 238 trouble understanding labels aor 42ci 17 103 bad medication reactions aor 41ci 12 147 conclusion limited english proficiency barrier medical comprehension increases risk adverse medication reactions access languageconcordant physicians substantially mitigates eliminate language barriers