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Published on: February 26, 2020
Language barriers: use of regular medical doctors by Canada's official language minorities
Emmanuel Ngwakongnwi1, Brenda R Hemmelgarn, Richard Musto
1Health Quality Council of Alberta, Canada.
Objective:
To assess use of regular medical doctors (RMDs), as well as awareness and use of telephone health lines or telehealth services, by official language minorities (OLMs) in Canada.
Design:
Analysis of data from the 2006 postcensal survey on the vitality of OLMs.
Setting:
Canada.
Participants:
In total, 7691 English speakers in Quebec and 12 376 French speakers outside Quebec, grouped into those who experienced language barriers and those with no language barriers.
Main Outcome Measures:
Health services utilization (HSU) by the presence of language barriers; HSU measures included having an RMD, use of an RMD's services, and awareness of and use of telephone health lines or telehealth services. Multivariable models examined the associations between HSU and language barriers.
Results:
After adjusting for age and sex, English speakers residing in Quebec with limited proficiency in French were less likely to have RMDs (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] 0.66, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.87) and to use the services of their RMDs (AOR 0.65, 95% CI 0.50 to 0.86), but were more likely to be aware of the existence of (AOR 1.50, 95% CI 1.16 to 1.93) and to use (AOR 1.43, 95% CI 0.97 to 2.11) telephone health lines or telehealth services. This pattern of having and using RMDs and telehealth services was not observed for French speakers residing outside of Quebec.
Conclusion:
Overall we found variation in HSU among the language barrier populations, with lower use observed in Quebec. Age older than 45 years, male sex, being married or in common-law relationships, and higher income were associated with having RMDs for OLMs.
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