Exactly What Latina Patients Don’t Inform Their Physicians: A Qualitative Study

Kell Julliard

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine, Lutheran clinic, Brooklyn, ny

Josefina Vivar

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine, Lutheran Medical Center, Brooklyn, nyc

Carlos Delgado

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine, Lutheran infirmary, Brooklyn, New York

Eugenio Cruz

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine, Lutheran clinic, Brooklyn, ny

Jennifer Kabak

1 Departments of Internal Medicine and Family Medicine, Lutheran clinic, Brooklyn, ny

Heidi Sabers

2 Americorps/Reach Out and Browse, Brooklyn, Ny

Abstract

PURPOSE The therapy a client gets is greatly afflicted with just exactly what he/she chooses to reveal to a doctor. This qualitative study investigated such facets as tradition and back ground that play a role in Latina patients’ nondisclosure of medical information.

PRACTICES individuals were 28 Latina ladies residing in Brooklyn. In-depth interviews in English or Spanish had been carried out and documented by substantial records. We utilized a grounded theory approach to locate appearing themes, that have been coded employing an iterative process that is continuous.

OUTCOMES Six main themes emerged: the relationship that is physician-patient language, doctor sex and age, time constraints, sensitive and painful medical issues, and tradition and birthplace. Such characteristics as compassion, caring, individual interest, and kindness had been vital that you many Latinas, who failed to feel safe sharing information if these characteristics had been missing. Language barriers caused issues with physician-patient discussion, that have been complicated by the existence of the translator. Doctors being male or more youthful might make disclosure hard, particularly around problems of sex and examination that is genital. Time constraints and cultural distinctions often led to doctors’ lack of understanding of delicate areas that patients would not desire to talk about, such as for instance sexuality, family preparation, domestic abuse, and make use of of leisure medications. Birthplace (international born vs US born) played a task in the way the females sensed barriers to disclosure.

CONCLUSIONS Staff training in approaches for building rapport can foster better interaction, increase empathy and compassion, and resulted in establishment of trusting relationships by which disclosure is more likely.

INTRODUCTION

The procedure a receives that are patient be significantly afflicted with exactly just exactly what the client chooses to reveal to his / her doctor. 1 – 5 Race has been confirmed to be a key point, 5 – 7 because has age, 5 doctor intercourse, 5 language and education, 6 and immigrant status. 7 tradition and ethnicity also perform a role that is important just just what clients decide to reveal plus in the way by which in which they disclose it, 7 , 8 though extra studies are essential to demonstrate how these facets run. Nondisclosure of data essential for medicine might have a harmful good opening lines for tinder matches influence on clients’ wellness. 9 Barriers to disclosure include patients’ convinced that particular info is maybe perhaps not crucial 10 ; emotions of anxiety, stigma, and embarrassment 11 ; and doctors maybe maybe perhaps not asking about specific problems, such as for instance partner abuse. 7

Despite the fact that many reports have actually explored impediments to communication between patients and doctors, Latina females are not well represented such studies. Sankar and Jones 1 examined women’s deliberations associated with disclosure, targeting experiences with doctors by which females made an option either to share with or perhaps not inform health related conditions one thing. Just 5 ladies (6%) of the test, nonetheless, had been Latina. Truly, Latinas are represented in certain scholarly studies of disclosure concentrating on certain areas, such as for instance intimate partner physical physical physical violence, 12 but a search for the literature discovered no studies of basic factors linked to disclosure in wellness encounters. A far better knowledge of barriers to disclosure in Latinas could enhance their medical care results. For this end, we decided to utilize the approach of Sankar and Jones 1 but to broaden it to research more general factors impacting disclosure. The aim of this study that is qualitative consequently, would be to explain which conditions reinforce nondisclosure of health information in medical encounters between Latina clients and their doctors.