Spanish-speaking patient health educational preferences.

Language barriers have been found to adversely affect health care in multiple ways, including access to care, quality of care, medical errors, and reduced patient satisfaction.1 Oral communication barriers are only one aspect of a multifaceted problem when there is physician‐patient language discordance.2 Efforts to improve office efficiency, reduce demands on physician time, and provide patient reminders often rely on written educational materials. Handouts are of ten translated directly from English to another language despite the possible limited health literacy of the pa‐tient. We examined Spanish‐speaking adult preferences regarding health instruction materials. Methods. This study was approved by the University of Illinois at Chicago institutional review board. Spanish‐speaking Hispanic adults (age, 􏰀18 years) re‐ quiring an interpreter during their office visit to an academic dermatology center were invited to participate in the study during a 4‐month period (May through Au‐ gust) in 2009. Patients excluded were individuals with decisional and/or cognitive impairment, physical disabilities that would prevent effective communication, or the ability to speak, read, and/or understand English without the aid of an interpreter. All new patients visiting our clinic are asked to complete the " Patient Education Self‐ Assessment " questionnaire (Figure), as mandated by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. This survey instrument has been in use at the University of Illinois Medical Center since 2000 and is designed to elicit patient information regarding language abilities, educational background, disabilities, and preferred learning methods. For the present study, completed questionnaires were reviewed by the research assistant for clarification and completion of items, as needed. The patients then reviewed 4 types of educational materials regarding nevi: (1) handouts of plain text only; (2) hand‐ outs combining text and color pictures; (3) oral explanations aided by pictures (no text handouts);