How Patients With Limited English Proficiency Make Health Care Decisions: Hmong Patients' Perspectives.

Introduction: Information about how the limited English proficiency immigrants make their decisions to seek health care is not well understood. With acculturation, immigrants tend to shift their beliefs and practices towards the practices of their host country. Yet, little is known whether this holds true for the Hmong's health care decision-making.

Lessons Learned: COVID Management and Cultural Practices in the US Hmong Community.

Introduction: Racially and ethnically minoritized communities are disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, it is not well understood how these communities are coping with and managing COVID-19. Research has shown that patients' cultural identities and practices can affect their health behaviors.

Limited English Proficient Patients' Perceptions of when Interpreters are Needed and how the Decision to Utilize Interpreters is Made.

Our objective was to describe when Hmong- and Spanish-speaking limited English proficient (LEP) patients perceive an interpreter was needed and how they perceive the decision to utilize an interpreter is made in a health care encounter. We interviewed a total of 20 LEP patients. We used a number of strategies to recruit LEP patients including posting language-appropriate flyers at clinics, sending letters to LEP patients and asking our participants to refer their family and friends to participate in our study.

Western or Traditional Healers? Understanding Decision Making in the Hmong Population.

Research has documented the influence of cultural values, beliefs, and traditional health practices on immigrants' health care utilization in their host countries. We describe our findings of how Hmong immigrants to the United States make decisions about whether and when to use traditional and/or Western health services. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 11 Hmong adults.

Limited English proficient Hmong- and Spanish-speaking patients' perceptions of the quality of interpreter services.

Background: Language barriers are a large and growing problem for patients in the US and around the world. Interpreter services are a standard solution for addressing language barriers and most research has focused on utilization of interpreter services and their effect on health outcomes for patients who do not speak the same language as their healthcare providers including nurses. However, there is limited research on patients' perceptions of these interpreter services.