The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #52517

Ninez Alafriz Ponce, MPP, PhD¹, Charles DiSogra, DrPH², Shana B. Alex, MPP³, Wei Yen, PhD², Delight E. Satter, MPH³, and E. Richard Brown, PhD². (1) UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, UCLA School of Public Health, Box 951772, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772, 310/206-4021, nponce@ucla.edu, (2) UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, 10911 Weyburn Avenue, 3rd Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90024, (3) Center for Health Policy Research, University of California, Los Angeles, 10911 Weyburn Ave., Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90024

The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), a population-based telephone survey of 55,000 California households on health status and health care coverage and access. To increase the representation of the state’s diverse racial and ethnic population, the questionnaire was systematically reviewed to ensure that its wording was simple and understandable at the 8th grade level and modified as needed to include relevant cultural prompts for various groups. The questionnaires were tested among a group of African American and American Indian/Alaska Native adults and adolescents, and then translated into five languages -- Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Korean. This cultural and linguistic adaptation process ensured that CHIS would reach California residents who were not English proficient and those from communities of color -- groups that have historically been under-represented in population surveys. This presentation discusses the process used for CHIS and includes response rates, average length of interview by language and yields by ethnic and language groups. Over 12% of adult interviews were conducted in a language other than English. For the target language groups -- which comprise more than half of California’s population -- 42% of respondents who were completed a translated version of the survey. Many of these respondents would have been excluded without cultural and linguistic adaptation of the survey, making the survey less representative of the health needs of California’s population. Our results support the importance of cultural and linguistic adaptation as a methodology that raises the quality of a population-based survey, especially when the population is as diverse as California’s.

Learning Objectives:

• The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), a population-based telephone survey of 55,000 California households on health status and health care coverage and access. To increase the representation of the state’s diverse racial and ethnic population, the questionnaire was systematically reviewed to ensure that its wording was simple and understandable at the 8th grade level and modified as needed to include relevant cultural prompts for various groups. The questionnaires were tested among a group of African American and American Indian/Alaska Native adults and adolescents, and then translated into five languages -- Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Korean. This cultural and linguistic adaptation process ensured that CHIS would reach California residents who were not English proficient and those from communities of color -- groups that have historically been under-represented in population surveys. This presentation discusses the process used for CHIS and includes response rates, average length of interview by language and yields by ethnic and language groups. Over 12% of adult interviews were conducted in a language other than English. For the target language groups -- which comprise more than half of California’s population -- 42% of respondents who were completed a translated version of the survey. Many of these respondents would have been excluded without cultural and linguistic adaptation of the survey, making the survey less representative of the health needs of California’s population. Our results support the importance of cultural and linguistic adaptation as a methodology that raises the quality of a population-based survey, especially when the population is as diverse as California’s.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.