Limited English Proficiency and Latinos’ Use of Physician Services

Many Latinos have limited English proficiency and this may negatively affect their use of health care services. To examine this, the authors interviewed 465 Spanish-speaking Latinos and 259 English speakers of various ethnicities who presented to a public hospital emergency department with nonurgent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical care research and review 2000-03, Vol.57 (1), p.76-91
Main Authors: Derose, Kathryn Pitkin, Baker, David W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Biological and medical sciences
Communication Barriers
Doctors
Emergency Service, Hospital - utilization
English language
Factors
Female
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Health Services Accessibility - statistics & numerical data
Health Services Research
Health services utilization
Hispanic Americans
Hispanic Americans - psychology
Hospitals, Public - utilization
Humans
Latin American people
Los Angeles
Los Angeles County
Male
Medical sciences
Models, Psychological
Multivariate Analysis
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - ethnology
Patient Acceptance of Health Care - statistics & numerical data
Physicians
Prevention and actions
Proficiency
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Regression Analysis
Spanish language
Specific populations (family, woman, child, elderly...)
Surveys and Questionnaires
USA
Use
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Summary:Many Latinos have limited English proficiency and this may negatively affect their use of health care services. To examine this, the authors interviewed 465 Spanish-speaking Latinos and 259 English speakers of various ethnicities who presented to a public hospital emergency department with nonurgent medical problems to assess previous physician visits, sociodemographic characteristics, and level of English proficiency. The proportion of patients who reported no physician visit during the 3 months before study enrollment was not related to English proficiency. However, among the 414 patients who saw a physician at least once, Latinos with fair and poor English proficiency reported approximately 22 percent fewer physician visits (p = 0.020 and p = 0.015, respectively) than non-Latinos whose native language was English, even after adjusting for other determinants of physician visits. The magnitude of the association between limited English proficiency and number of physician visits was similar to that for having poor health, no health insurance, or no regular source of care.
ISSN:1077-5587
1552-6801
DOI:10.1177/107755870005700105