Our current quarterly newsletter, CONNECT, focuses on language barriers in healthcare. (Not on our mailing list? Send an email to audrey.miller@atkinsinternational.com and include your name and email or mailing address.)
Our blog this week will continue with this theme.
A study led by Z. Jennifer Huang at the Department of International Health at Georgetown University supports the conclusion that simply having and affording medical insurance does not guarantee healthcare usage in this country. Language in fact can be a barrier to being healthy.
Ms. Huang studied 76 families from 3 different socioeconomic groups in the metropolitan D.C. area (42% of this area’s immigrant families are Asian.) To qualify for the study, families had to have both parents born in China and speaking Mandarin as their primary language.
From suburban areas there were 20 families in the low-income bracket, 45 in the middle to high income bracket and 11 urban families in the low income bracket from D.C.’s Chinatown area. Most families had access to either private or public health insurance coverage.
Families were asked if in the past year there was a time their child was sick and they chose not to seek health care. Anyone responding with a “yes” received a more detailed inquiry as to why.
According to Ms. Huang, the researchers were “surprised to find out the delayed care is more common in this population, especially the middle income group.” Since many in this group were insured, the researchers looked for issues beyond insurance coverage that affected healthcare utilization.
Ms. Huang found most parents did not get care because they could not find a Chinese speaking doctor or were unable to find an interpreter.
“Not many recent immigrant families know they can request translation service at clinics with federal funding.” Huang said.
More detailed reporting of this study can be found in the May 2009 issue of the Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved.
http://www.press.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_health_care_for_the_poor_and_underserved/
by Sherry Dineen
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