Abstract
Data bearing on the effect of language of the interview on Hispanics' responses to a health survey in which no back-translation was undertaken reveal both lower reliabilities and lower bivariate correlations among Hispanics interviewed in Spanish than among Hispanics interviewed in English. An independent back-translation aimed at creating an English version of the questionnaire that was linguistically equivalent to the Spanish version indicated several instances in which the Spanish version was unidiomatic. Differences between the Spanish and English version in the idiomatic quality of the interview items, while not affecting meaning, appear to have affected the seriousness with which the interview situation was perceived. These perceptions, in turn, appear to have led to the response discrepancies observed.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Aday L. A., Chiu G. Y., Andersen R. Methodological issues in health care surveys of the Spanish heritage population. Am J Public Health. 1980 Apr;70(4):367–374. doi: 10.2105/ajph.70.4.367. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Phillips H. T., Beza A. G. The use of health surveys in health systems agency planning. Am J Public Health. 1979 Mar;69(3):221–222. doi: 10.2105/ajph.69.3.221. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rice D. P., Drury T. F., Mugge R. H. Household health interviews and minority health: the NCHS perspective. Med Care. 1980 Mar;18(3):327–335. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198003000-00007. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Roberts R. E., Lee E. S. Medical care use by Mexican-Americans: evidence from the human population laboratory studies. Med Care. 1980 Mar;18(3):267–281. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Roberts R. E., Lee E. S. The health of Mexican Americans: evidence from the human population laboratory studies. Am J Public Health. 1980 Apr;70(4):375–384. doi: 10.2105/ajph.70.4.375. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Salber E. J., Beza A. G. The health interview survey and minority health. Med Care. 1980 Mar;18(3):319–326. doi: 10.1097/00005650-198003000-00006. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Siemiatycki J. A comparison of mail, telephone, and home interview strategies for household health surveys. Am J Public Health. 1979 Mar;69(3):238–245. doi: 10.2105/ajph.69.3.238. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]