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Measuring disparities: bias in the Short Form-36v2 among Spanish-speaking medical patients.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Many national surveys have found substantial differences in self-reported overall health between Spanish-speaking Hispanics and other racial/ethnic groups. However, because cultural and language differences may create measurement bias, it is unclear whether observed differences in self-reported overall health reflect true differences in health. OBJECTIVES:This study uses a cross-sectional survey to investigate psychometric properties of the Short Form-36v2 for subjects across 4 racial/ethnic and language groups. Multigroup latent variable modeling was used to test increasingly stringent criteria for measurement equivalence. SUBJECTS:Our sample (N=1281) included 383 non-Hispanic whites, 368 non-Hispanic blacks, 206 Hispanics interviewed in English, and 324 Hispanics interviewed in Spanish recruited from outpatient medical clinics in 2 large urban areas. RESULTS:We found weak factorial invariance across the 4 groups. However, there was no evidence for strong factorial invariance. The overall fit of the model was substantially worse (change in Comparative Fit Index >0.02, root mean square error of approximation change >0.003) after requiring equal intercepts across all groups. Further comparisons established that the equality constraints on the intercepts for Spanish-speaking Hispanics were responsible for the decrement to model fit. CONCLUSIONS:Observed differences between SF-36v2 scores for Spanish-speaking Hispanics are systematically biased relative to the other 3 groups. The lack of strong invariance suggests the need for caution when comparing SF-36v2 mean scores of Spanish-speaking Hispanics with those of other groups. However, measurement equivalence testing for this study supports correlational or multivariate latent variable analyses of SF-36v2 responses across all the 4 subgroups, as these analyses require only weak factorial invariance.

SUBMITTER: Sudano JJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3078179 | biostudies-other | 2011 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Measuring disparities: bias in the Short Form-36v2 among Spanish-speaking medical patients.

Sudano Joseph J JJ Perzynski Adam A Love Thomas E TE Lewis Steven A SA Murray Patrick M PM Huber Gail M GM Ruo Bernice B Baker David W DW

Medical care 20110501 5

<h4>Background</h4>Many national surveys have found substantial differences in self-reported overall health between Spanish-speaking Hispanics and other racial/ethnic groups. However, because cultural and language differences may create measurement bias, it is unclear whether observed differences in self-reported overall health reflect true differences in health.<h4>Objectives</h4>This study uses a cross-sectional survey to investigate psychometric properties of the Short Form-36v2 for subjects ...[more]

PMID: 21430580

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Project description:IntroductionInfection prevention and speaking up on errors are core qualities of health care providers. Heuristic effects (e.g. overconfidence) may impair behavior in daily routine, while speaking up can be inhibited by hierarchical barriers and medical team factors. Aim of this investigation was to determine, how medical students experience these difficulties for hand hygiene in daily routine.MethodsOn the base of prior investigations we developed a questionnaire with 5-point Likert ordinal scaled items and free text entries. This was tested for validity and reliability (Cronbach's Alpha 0.89). Accredited German, Swiss and Austrian universities were contacted and medical students asked to participated in the anonymous online survey. Quantitative statistics used parametric and non-parametric tests and effect size calculations according to Lakens. Qualitative data was coded according to Janesick.Results1042 undergraduates of 12 universities participated. All rated their capabilities in hand hygiene and feedback reception higher than those of fellow students, nurses and physicians (p<0.001). Half of the participants rating themselves to be best educated, realized that faulty hand hygiene can be of lethal effect. Findings were independent from age, sex, academic course and university. Speaking-up in case of omitted hand hygiene was rated to be done seldomly and most rare on persons of higher hierarchic levels. Qualitative results of 164 entries showed four main themes: 1) Education methods in hand hygiene are insufficient, 2) Hierarchy barriers impair constructive work place culture 3) Hygiene and feedback are linked to medical ethics and 4) There is no consequence for breaking hygiene rules.DiscussionAlthough partially limited by the selection bias, this study confirms the overconfidence-effects demonstrated in post-graduates in other settings and different professions. The independence from study progress suggests, that the effect occurs before start of the academic course with need for educational intervention at the very beginning. Qualitative data showed that used methods are insufficient and contradictory work place behavior in hospitals are frustrating. Even 20 years after "To err is human", work place culture still is far away from the desirable.

Project description:BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE:Children of Spanish-speaking caregivers face multiple barriers to care in academic medical centers. This study identified barriers and facilitators of health care and described use of health information technology in order to guide interventions and optimize services. METHODS:In-depth, audiotaped interviews were conducted with monolingual Spanish-speaking caregivers (N = 28) of children receiving care in academic medical center clinics using a structured interview guide. Interviews were transcribed in Spanish, and key themes were identified using thematic analysis. Illustrative quotes for each theme were translated into English. RESULTS:Language-specific barriers included arrival/registration occurring in English, lack of bilingual personnel, heavy reliance on interpreters, long wait times, and challenging phone communication. Non-language-specific barriers included medical center size and complexity, distance to services, lack of convenient and coordinated appointments, missing work/school, and financial barriers including insurance coverage or lack of citizenship. Caregivers identified interpreters, bilingual physicians and staff, and written materials in Spanish as facilitators of care. Most caregivers had internet access and expressed interest in health information technology, including patient portals, to communicate about their children's health. CONCLUSIONS:Caregivers of Spanish-speaking children encounter many language-specific barriers, which are compounded by non-language-specific barriers arising from complex health systems and social needs. Caregivers with limited resources described working hard to meet children's complex health care needs despite these barriers. Most caregivers had internet access and interest in patient portals. Academic medical centers may need multifaceted interventions that improve the availability of bilingual staff and interpreters and also address caregivers' social and informational needs.

Project description:Effective communication with primary care physicians is important yet incompletely understood for Spanish-speaking parents. We predicted lower satisfaction among Spanish-speaking compared to English-speaking Latino and non-Latino parents.Cross-sectional analysis at 2-month well visits within the Greenlight study at 4 pediatric resident clinics. Parents reported satisfaction with 14 physician communication items using the validated Communication Assessment Tool (CAT). High satisfaction was defined as "excellent" on each CAT item. Mean estimations compared satisfaction for communication items among Spanish- and English-speaking Latinos and non-Latinos. We used generalized linear regression modeling, adjusted for parent age, education, income, and clinic site. Among Spanish-speaking parents, we compared visits conducted in Spanish with and without an interpreter, and in English.Compared to English-speaking Latino (n = 127) and non-Latino parents (n = 432), fewer Spanish-speaking parents (n = 303) reported satisfaction with 14 communication items. No significant differences were found between English-speaking Latinos and non-Latinos. Greatest differences were found in the use of a greeting that made the parent comfortable (59.4% of Spanish-speaking Latinos endorsing "excellent" vs 77.5% English-speaking Latinos, P < .01) and discussing follow-up (62.5% of Spanish-speaking Latinos vs 79.8% English-speaking Latinos, P < .01). After adjusting for parent age, education, income, and study site, Spanish-speaking Latinos were still less likely to report high satisfaction with these communication items. Satisfaction was not different among Spanish-speaking parents when the physician spoke Spanish versus used an interpreter.Satisfaction with physician communication was associated with language but not ethnicity. Spanish-speaking parents less frequently report satisfaction with communication, and innovative solutions to enhance communication quality are needed.

Project description:BackgroundRheumatoid arthritis (RA) knowledge has been constructed with studies performed in Caucasians patients; Latin American patients present unique characteristics. Empowerment is a social multidimensional construct that has been associated to better health-related quality of life in RA. There is no validated instrument for use with Spanish-speaking patients. The objective of the study was to adapt the Spanish version of the Health Empowerment Scale (S-HES), which was selected for its psychometric properties and suitability for low-literacy populations, for RA Hispanic patients (RAEH), and to perform its psychometric validation.MethodsRAEH adaptation, pilot testing, and psychometric validation were performed. Three convenience samples of RA outpatients from a national tertiary care level center were used. For RAEH adaptation, the word "health" was substituted with "RA" in the original S-HES, integrated by 8 items. Pilot testing (in 50 patients) assessed feasibility. Psychometric validation included content validity (nine experts rated item convenience, clarity, and cultural semantic accuracy), internal consistency (in 200 patients, Cronbach's alpha) and test-retest (in a subsample of 50 patients, ICC and 95% CI), construct validity (factor analysis), and face validity (in 20 patients, % of agreement). Patients gave written informed consent.ResultsPatients were primarily middle-aged females and had typical long-standing disease, although early disease was represented. In the psychometric validation sample, the majority of the outpatients had autoantibodies; meanwhile, half of them had no evidence of disease activity, with acute reactants phase determinations within normal range. Patients with comorbidities and joint replacement were also included. Experts agreed upon the attributes of content validity: 83-100% considered the item was essential, 100% agreed on the item's clarity and 80-100% on the cultural semantic accuracy. In the pilot sample, ? 80% of the patients agreed with the item's clarity and format. In the psychometric validation sample, mean RAEH was 34 (maximum possible score: 40?=?highest score). RAEH had a good internal consistency, Cronbach's ??=?0.86, and moderately good reliability (ICC [95% CI] test-retest: 0.79 [0.62-0.88]). Factor analysis for construct validity showed a single factor explaining 52% of the variance. Patients agreed with each item content validity (85-100%) and clarity (75-100%).ConclusionsRAEH was valid and reliable to evaluate empowerment in Spanish-speaking RA patients.

Dataset Information

Measuring disparities: bias in the Short Form-36v2 among Spanish-speaking medical patients.

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Measuring disparities: bias in the Short Form-36v2 among Spanish-speaking medical patients.

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