Pilot-testing of multilingual health-education voice messages for limited English proficiency (LEP) populations

BACKROUND:

LEP status contributes to a range of adverse health outcomes, including greater likelihood of hospital admission, misdiagnosis, and inappropriate treatment. Despite documented evidence that automated telephone messages contribute to positive health outcomes and may particularly benefit LEP populations, the overwhelming majority of telephone-based interventions exclusively target English-speaking patients.

OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE:

The objective of this pilot study was to develop multilingual voice messages and evaluate their efficacy for cancer-related education for LEP individuals.

METHODS:

Messages were scripted and audio-recorded in Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Representative LEP individuals (N=50) and healthcare providers (N=26) were recruited to evaluate the messages via knowledge acquisition instruments, Likert-scale questionnaires and group discussions. Assessments were made at baseline, immediately post-listening, and 7-10 days later.

RESULTS:

LEP Participants demonstrated significant knowledge gains as compared to baseline: Pre-test - 54%, Post-test - 88%, Retention test - 81%. LEP participants (90%) and healthcare providers (91%) believed the messages were an effective means to communicate important health information; 100% of LEP participants would encourage friends and family to receive these health messages; 96% of providers would use this messaging system to relay health information to their patients.

DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION:

This study successfully demonstrated the use of language-concordant voice messages to impart health information to LEP individuals. A Phase II randomized-controlled trial is currently underway to determine the efficacy of health-related voice messages as an adjunct to a community outreach program for LEP patients. Funding for this study is provided by NIH/NCI.