Assessment of Spanish Translation of Websites at Top-Ranked US Hospitals

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has disproportionately affected Latinx communities across the United States. Latinx and African American individuals have 3 times the infection rate and twice the mortality rate from COVID-19 compared with White individuals. 1 Latinx individuals are overrepresented as essential workers, which has contributed to their increased risk of contracting COVID-19 and experiencing related complications. 2 Additional factors likely contribute to poor Latinx health outcomes, including institutional racism, discrimination, health care access, and socioeconomic and documentation status. 3 As of 2019, the US population is 16.9% Latinx, of which 16.1% speak Spanish and do not speak English well. 4 Many hospitals have implemented programs to improve accessibility of services to diverse populations. However, translation continues to be inadequate in addressing language barriers preventing Latinx communities from seeking appropriate care. 5 Particularly, patients are deprived of important information about hospitals due to a paucity of Spanish translation of hospital websites. Our cross-sectional study aims to elucidate this issue by investigating potential variables associated with Spanish translation of hospital websites. MethodsThis cross-sectional study did not involve human participants and, therefore, did not require ethical review under 45 CFR part 46. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline.A list of 30 top adult hospitals and 10 top children's hospitals in the US was compiled from the US News Weekly & World Report and Newsweek. This list represents a snapshot of US health care, which consists of 637 total health systems, of which 54 contain at least one children's hospital. 6 Hospitals were classified as affiliated or not affiliated with a public medical school. Hospital websites were reviewed between June 29 and August 3, 2020. Websites were assessed for containing policies on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activities on hospital grounds. The dependent variable was whether or not hospital websites had real-time Spanish translation capabilities, further categorized as using Google Translate or other translation methods. The 2018 American Community Survey Demographic and Housing Estimates were used to determine percentage of Latinx population in hospital counties. A threshold of P < .05 in logistic regression was used to determine statistical significance of variables on the binary outcome of a hospital website being available in Spanish. Odds ratios were calculated by exponentiating the coefficients of the logistic regression.Statistical analysis was performed using R statistical software version 1.2.5033 (R Project for Statistical Computing) from July to September 2020. ResultsOf the 40 hospitals studied, nine (22.5%) had Spanish translation capabilities. Of those, 2 used Google Translate, whereas translation methods of the others are unknown. No hospital had explicit documentation of human tra...

Assessment of Spanish Translation of Websites at Top-Ranked US Hospitals

“…2 Additional factors likely contribute to poor Latinx health outcomes, including institutional racism, discrimination, health care access, and socioeconomic and documentation status. 3 As of 2019, the US population is 16.9% Latinx, of which 16.1% speak Spanish and do not speak English well. 4 Many hospitals have implemented programs to improve accessibility of services to diverse populations.…”

Error in End Matter

“…In the Research Letter titled “Assessment of Spanish Translation of Websites at Top-Ranked US Hospitals,” 1 published February 11, 2021, there was an error in a co-author’s last name in the Author Affiliations of the Article Information section. The last name should have appeared as Moreno Bueno.…”

Linguistic fairness in the U.S.: The case of multilingual public health information about COVID-19

“…(1.2 million) (13). The quality of many health resources 32 for non-English users, however, is far from ideal (15,16), 33 contributing to health disparities nationwide and amplifying 34 structural inequalities accentuated by the pandemic (17)(18)(19). (20)(21)(22)(23)(24).…”