"If patients are attended in their language they have less anxiety and more confidence with the doctor"

A study by Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) analyzing a hundred international research studies on healthcare with linguistic discordance confirms that

Joana Pena-Tarradelles, a researcher in Translation and Language Sciences, has analyzed the main field studies conducted in countries such as Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Wales, and the Basque Country regarding access to health for migrant communities and native communities with more than one language. "Healthcare in a language different from the patient's has consequences," Pena-Tarradelles states to ARA.

studies with Francophone patients in Canadastudies with Francophone patients in Canada, with Swedish speakers in Finland, with Welsh and Basque speakers, "communication difficulties can persist, especially in situations of stress and vulnerability or when complex sensations of pain have to be described, because the patient resorts to their usual language and loses fluency in the second language," points out the study by Pena-Tarradelles published in the Revista de Llengua i Dret.

; but also the case of the psychiatric patient to whom they Pena-Tarradelles is currently studying the impact that not being attended in Catalan can have on Catalan speakers in the country's healthcare centers, where it is an official language. "Many times it is assumed that if the patient knows how to speak Spanish and is bilingual, there are no communication barriers and that being attended to in the minority language is an ideological preference that has no impact at the healthcare level," she observes. The first results suggest that "language is an important factor in the quality of medical care," says UPF researcher Joana Pena-Tarradelles. A paradigmatic case is the one described by Carme Junyent in her farewell article, "Dying in Catalan"; but also the case of the patient undergoing psychiatric treatment who was denied treatment in Catalan.

Not knowing the language at all

Different studies from the United States, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain have analyzed the relationship between language and health, especially in the migrant population. Immigrants who do not speak the official languages of the country tend to make fewer comments and be less heard during consultations, which, in addition to worsening their health, directly leads to patients visiting the doctor less often. Situations are detailed, such as misinformation about the follow-up of serious pathologies like heart attack, cancer, or diabetes. Or Pakistani and Moroccan women who avoid gynecological follow-up because they feel discriminated against. "One of the major differences is that the migrated population that does not speak the official language of the country not only has a communication barrier, but there is also a large cultural difference, a lack of socio-cultural knowledge of behavioral norms, and a low educational level," observes the researcher. Cultural and social distances, and even patients who go to the doctor with mediators, represent a significant handicap for communication, care, and trust within the health system.