Comparison of English and Spanish Medical Information Sheets Jenessa Franco, Jacob Hoffman, Lily Salinas, Theresa Whalen, Jessica Coapstick, Ila Jackson, and Graciela Payan Advisors: Carole Pepa PhD, RN; Constance Lemley DNP, RN, GCNS-BC

Background Hispanics rate lowest on literacy scores Low health literacy: increases healthcare costs negatively affects outcomes Translation by mostly computers Health literacy is defined as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.” According to a national survey, approximately 35% of adults have basic or below basic literacy.. According to the Institute of Medicine, more than 90 million people in the U.S. cannot use health information as presented. In the populations surveyed, Hispanics scored the lowest on health literacy indicators. This inadequate health literacy of the U.S. population, costs between 8-15 billion dollars each year as a result of errors in self medication, diagnostic testing preparation, and following medical regimens. In One strategy to make health information more understandable and user friendly is to provide the information in the client’s native language. Much of the translation of medical information is done by computers Translation of computers = 75% used and only 5% concern about accuracy. Computer errors of translation is about ?%

Purpose To determine if medication information given to a patient in Spanish provides the same information that the medication sheets written in English provide. The purpose of this case study was to determine if select medication information given to patients in Spanish was comparable to the information provided in English. As health care providers who do not read another language, we assume that the information we hand out in Spanish is the same as the information we hand out in English.

Question How do select English and Spanish medication information sheets compare? Therefore, out question was: How do select English and Spanish medication information sheets compare?

Design Case study We used a case study design. In this design, we intensively examined a small number of medication sheets in both English and Spanish.

Sample Two common drug sheets chosen: Warfarin Amoxicillin Both of these medications are commonly prescribed, and both have been identified as medications which result in medication errors.

Methods Translated from Spanish to English Secured from two chain pharmacies Compared content and readability with English version For this study, we secured medication information sheets in both Spanish and English from two chain pharmacies. We first reviewed the information sheets in English to determine that they contained the information necessary for a client to take the medication. We reviewed reading level? And readability. Two members of the research team then independently translated the Spanish information sheets into English. These translations were ten compared for interrater reliability. We then used a content analysis to compare the translated Spanish and the English versions of the medication sheets.

Findings Translated versions do not contain the same information: English had more detail Spanish was Castilian Spanish Literacy level of Spanish materials were higher Layout of English materials was more readable We found that the Spanish versions were written in the Spanish that is spoken in Spain and that the handouts from the two pharmacies differed in readability as far as white space and layout. We also found that the English versions had more detail overall.

Recommendations Nurses need to know discrepancies exist when teaching Computer translations need to be verified for accuracy More research needs to be explored to help eliminate medication errors and their effects As a result, we found that we cannot take for granted that the written information in another language is the dame as the English version the nurse is referring to. When computers are used for translations, these must be checked for accuracy. More research needs to be completed to explore this topic on a larger scale.