Healthcare Experiences of Limited English-Proficient Asian American Patients

Quyen Ngo-Metzger (), Dara Sorkin and Russell Phillips

The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, 2009, vol. 2, issue 2, 113-120

Abstract: Background: Among patients with limited English-language proficiency (LEP), provider-patient language discordance is related to lower patient satisfaction. However, little is known about how language barriers are associated with specific patient experiences, and how these experiences in turn may influence patient satisfaction. Objective: To evaluate the degree of health education and the quality of interpersonal care that occurs during patient visits, and their associations with patient satisfaction, in LEP Asian American patients. Methods: A cross-sectional mail survey was conducted in 2746 LEP Chinese and Vietnamese patients aged ≥18 years from 11 community health centers in eight US cities. We examined self-reported healthcare experiences of LEP patients who had visits to a language concordant (speaks the patient’s language) or discordant (does not speak the patient’s language) provider over the previous month. Multivariable logistic regressions were conducted to examine the associations between interpersonal care, discussions of health-related behaviors, and patient satisfaction. Results: Discussions of health-related behaviors and the quality of interpersonal care received were independent predictors of patient satisfaction (p>0.001). For language-discordant visits without access to an interpreter, patients who received poor-quality interpersonal care were more likely to be dissatisfied with the visit (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 2.44; 95% CI 1.67, 3.57) and with the provider (AOR 4.43; 95% CI 1.71, 11.48) [both p>0.01]. Conclusions: Improving the quality of interpersonal care and the degree of health-related discussions may result in greater satisfaction among LEP patients. The quality of the provider’s interpersonal care is especially important to patient satisfaction. Interpreter services may alleviate some disparities in care. Copyright Adis Data Information BV 2009

Date: 2009
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2165/01312067-200902020-00007 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:patien:v:2:y:2009:i:2:p:113-120

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/40271

DOI: 10.2165/01312067-200902020-00007

Access Statistics for this article

The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research is currently edited by Christopher I. Carswell

More articles in The Patient: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research from Springer, International Academy of Health Preference Research
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().