Abstract
Purpose :
The use of medical interpreters during medical encounters for non-English-speaking patients has been common practice for many years, however, its efficiency in explaining complex eye conditions has yet to be evaluated. We hypothesize that Hispanic-speaking patients will have lower rates of understanding their glaucoma diagnosis and severity, in comparison to English-speaking patients due to gaps in translation provided by medical interpreters.
Methods :
Native Spanish (N=40) and native English (N=20) speaking patients from the Eskenazi Health Eye Clinic (Indianapolis, IN) were recruited between July 2021-August 2022 and administered a survey to compare patient understanding of glaucoma type, glaucoma severity, and number of glaucoma eye drops currently prescribed. Patients were identified via a brief chart review prior to their appointment. Inclusion criteria consisted of being 18 years or older and having a formal glaucoma and/or glaucoma suspect diagnosis. Patients with cognitive impairment diagnosis were excluded from the study.
Data comparing English and Spanish speaker’s responses was calculated via Pearson chi squared and odds ratio analysis.
Results :
Rates of understanding were low for both English and Spanish-speaking groups for glaucoma type (10% vs 2.5%, p = 0.209) with some improvement in understanding of glaucoma severity (41.18% vs. 32.26%, p = 0.537) and high rates of understanding the number of glaucoma eyedrops prescribed (80% vs. 78.33%, p = 0.825). The odds of English speakers having a better understanding of their glaucoma type (OR 0.231; 95% CI 0.02 – 2.713), glaucoma severity (OR 0.680; 95% CI 0.2 – 2.315), and number of eyedrops prescribed (OR 0.861; 95% CI 0.23 – 3.235) was not statistically significant across the board.
Conclusions :
Our study highlights low patient understanding of their glaucoma diagnosis and severity not only in the Spanish-speaking group, but also the English-speaking group. Low patient understanding amongst both groups and our smaller population size made it unlikely to demonstrate a difference between the groups. Further studies are required to uncover what factors influence comprehension and what interventions can be done to alleviate this issue.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.