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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

M. Elizabeth Fore, PhD and Deborah Parra-Medina, PhD. Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, 800 Sumter St., Columbia, SC 29847, 803-777-7017, mefore@gwm.sc.edu

While health disparities affect most ethnic/racial minority groups in the U.S., the Latino population in South Carolina has the additional concern of being a rapidly increasing population with significant language barriers. Because of the impact of language barriers on diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes, language discrimination is a contributor to health disparities that can be both identified and remedied. Based on the concepts of stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination, a survey measuring knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of healthcare providers and staff towards limited-English-proficient (LEP) Latinos was developed and administered to 203 healthcare professionals attending two conferences for clinical and administrative staff of community healthcare centers. The purpose of this study was to explore the predictive value of social status, stereotyping, and prejudice on language discrimination within the healthcare system. Social status was determined by four sociodemographic variables, race/ethnicity, gender, educational level, and discipline. Stereotyping was measured using the Stereotyping Index developed by Stephan in which respondents were asked to rate the favorability of traits and to indicate the percentage of the target population who has each trait. Prejudice was measured by three scales on which respondents were asked to rate the importance of different types of language services. Language discrimination was a 9-item scale that measured the frequency of facilitating or engaging in language access behaviors. Regression analysis indicated that both prejudice and stereotyping but not social status were predictors of language discrimination (R²=.34). Results of this study indicate that interventions to reduce prejudice and stereotyping are needed to address language discrimination.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to
• Describe two predictors of discrimination
• Discuss the outcomes of the study
• Describe interventions to increase social contact between healthcare professionals and immigrant populations

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Not Answered