Linguistic Acculturation and Perceptions of Quality, Access, and Discrimination in Health Care Among Latinos in the United States

Abstract

This study examined the relationship between acculturation and Latinos' perceptions of health care treatment quality, discrimination, and access to health information. The results of this study indicated that participants who had lower levels of acculturation perceived: 1) greater discrimination in health care treatment; 2) a lower quality of health care treatment; 3) less confidence filling out health related forms; and 4) greater challenges understanding written information about their medical conditions. Participants who identified as immigrants also perceived that their poor quality of medical care was due to their inability to pay and to their race/ethnicity.

KEYWORDS:

• Latinos
• health care
• discrimination
• health care treatment
• immigrants

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Southwest Collaborative on Immigration, Inequality and Poverty.