We present results of the collaboration of a multinational team of researchers from (computational) linguistics, medicine, and medical informatics with the goal of building a multilingual medical lexicon with high coverage and complete morpho-syntactic information. Monolingual lexical resources were collected and subsequently mapped between languages using a morpho-semantic term normalization engine, which captures intra- as well as interlingual synonymy relationships on the level of subwords. (+info)
User study of a Spanish-language ClinicalTrials.gov prototype system.
(66/406)
We conducted a user study of monolingual and bilingual Spanish-speaking consumers (n=36) to evaluate a Spanish-language ClinicalTrials.gov prototype. The prototype leverages an existing English-only consumer health resource by combining (1) Spanish-English cross-language information retrieval (CLIR) and (2) English-Spanish document display techniques. We collected user feedback on expectations, usability, and satisfaction. Preliminary results suggest improved online information access by Spanish-speakers. The goal is to develop a general approach for other systems and languages. (+info)
Do reading tests measure the same construct in multiethnic and multilingual older persons?
(67/406)
A critical focus of neuropsychological research is to identify unbiased ways to compare heterogeneous groups on background variables relevant to neuropsychological performance. Whereas recent work has pointed to single word reading as a less culturally biased measure of educational experience than years of education, the extent to which reading score captures a broad range of educational experience and does so consistently across ethnic and language groups is unknown. The current study evaluated reading in relation to years of education in English-speaking Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics, and Spanish-speaking Hispanic older persons (n = 342). Consistent with previous work, reading scores at each grade level were lower in English speaking ethnic minorities than in Whites, supporting the idea that variables related to lifetime educational experience are often confounded with ethnicity. Standardized reading scores were highest in the Spanish speakers; however, interpretation of this difference is limited because scores were necessarily derived using separate normative samples. Importantly, the slopes of reading score by years of education were comparable across all groups. That is, reading scores rose consistently with years of education independently of ethnicity or language, suggesting that such scores can be treated comparably for theoretical and statistical purposes in multiethnic and multilingual samples. (+info)
Knowledge about health risks and drinking behavior among Hispanic women who are or have been of childbearing age.
(68/406)
In this study, 99 Mexican American women colonia residents who are or had been of childbearing age were assessed for English language skills, alcohol use, beliefs about health risks related to drinking, and awareness of warning labels on alcohol beverage containers. English language skills significantly predicted participants' ability to remember health warnings on beverage containers whereas greater awareness of nutritional information on labels was associated with lesser amounts of alcohol consumed. Beliefs that drinking during pregnancy is helpful and not associated with liver and cognitive problems were significantly associated with higher alcohol consumption, and beliefs that drinking helps when pregnant along with a reported history of drinking during a previous pregnancy significantly predicted self-reported drinking during a most recent pregnancy. The study represents a first step toward understanding how beliefs about drinking risks may be associated with alcohol use among Hispanic women. (+info)
Vocabulary and verbal fluency of bilingual and monolingual college students.
(69/406)
We assessed the English vocabulary and verbal fluency of college students who were either bilinguals who were born abroad and spoke English or monolingual speakers of English. We examined the relationship between age of arrival to the U.S. of bilinguals and their English vocabulary. The bilinguals' performance on English vocabulary was in the average range. However, despite arriving to the U.S. at a relatively young age, and having sufficient command of English to attend a competitive university, the bilinguals had lower receptive and expressive English vocabularies than their monolingual peers. Age of arrival was moderately correlated with English vocabulary scores. The younger the bilingual students were when they arrived to the U.S., the better their English vocabulary. Both groups had similar performance on phonetic fluency. However, the bilingual group performed significantly lower in semantic fluency. This pattern of performance in verbal fluency is consistent with that found in previous studies. (+info)
Mental disorders among English-speaking Mexican immigrants to the US compared to a national sample of Mexicans.
(70/406)
Our understanding of the relationship between immigration and mental health can be advanced by comparing immigrants pre- and post-immigration with residents of the immigrants' home countries. DSM-IV anxiety and mood disorders were assessed using identical methods in representative samples of English-speaking Mexican immigrants to the US, a subsample of the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCSR), and Mexicans, the Mexican National Comorbidity Survey (MNCS). Retrospective reports of age of onset of disorders and, in the immigrant sample, age of immigration were analyzed to study the associations of pre-existing mental disorders with immigration and of immigration with the subsequent onset and persistence of mental disorders. Pre-existing anxiety disorders predicted immigration (OR=3.0; 95% CI 1.2-7.4). Immigration predicted subsequent onset of anxiety (OR=1.9; 95% CI 0.9-3.9) and mood (OR=2.3; 95% CI 1.3-4.0) disorders and persistence of anxiety (OR=3.7 95% CI 1.2-11.2) disorders. The results are inconsistent with the "healthy immigrant" hypothesis (that mentally healthy people immigrate) and partly consistent with the "acculturation stress" hypothesis (i.e., that stresses of living in a foreign culture promote mental disorder). Replication and extension of these results in a larger bi-national sample using a single field staff are needed. (+info)
Parents sharing books with young deaf children in spoken english and in BSL: the common and diverse features of different language settings.
(71/406)
Twelve parents of young deaf children were recorded sharing books with their deaf child--six from families using British Sign Language (BSL) and six from families using spoken English. Although all families were engaged in sharing books with their deaf child and concerned to promote literacy development, they approached the task differently and had different expectations in terms of outcome. The sign bilingual families concentrated on using the book to promote BSL development, engaging in discussion around the book but without referring to the text, whereas the spoken language families were focused on features of the text and less inclined to use the book to promote wider knowledge. Implications for early intervention and support are drawn from the data. (+info)
Are good intentions good enough? Informed consent without trained interpreters.
(72/406)
OBJECTIVE: To examine the informed consent process when trained language interpreters are unavailable. BACKGROUND: Ensuring sufficient patient understanding for informed consent is especially challenging for patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP). While US law requires provision of competent translation for LEP patients, such services are commonly unavailable. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Qualitative data was collected in 8 prenatal genetics clinics in Texas, including interviews and observations with 16 clinicians, and 30 Latina patients. Using content analysis techniques, we examined whether the basic criteria for informed consent (voluntariness, discussion of alternatives, adequate information, and competence) were evident for each of these patients, contrasting LEP patients with patients not needing an interpreter. We present case examples of difficulties related to each of these criteria, and compare informed consent scores for consultations requiring interpretation and those which did not. RESULTS: We describe multiple communication problems related to the use of untrained interpreters, or reliance on clinicians' own limited Spanish. These LEP patients appear to be consistently disadvantaged in each of the criteria we examined, and informed consent scores were notably lower for consultations which occurred across a language barrier. CONCLUSIONS: In the absence of adequate Spanish interpretation, it was uncertain whether these LEP patients were provided the quality and content of information needed to assure that they are genuinely informed. We offer some low-cost practice suggestions that might mitigate these problems, and improve the quality of language interpretation, which is essential to assuring informed choice in health care for LEP patients. (+info)