Language Anxiety in Neurosurgical Care: Exploring Foreign Language Anxiety in Hispanic Patients

Globalization and immigration have increased language-discordant care, which can adversely affect patient outcomes. Although foreign language anxiety (FLA) is well-studied in education, it is largely unexplored in health care, where it may hinder communication and clinical decision-making.

This single-institution cross-sectional study included Hispanic outpatient neurosurgical patients aged 18 years and older who completed a survey evaluating their English comfort and FLA levels. The survey prompts were based on the Foreign Language Anxiety in the Medical Office Scale and comfort reading/speaking English tools. Survey responses were collected from May to December 2024. Unadjusted t-tests and multiple linear regression were used to assess the association between English comfort and FLA, adjusting for sex, age, and level of education.

A total of 102 surveys were collected. Patients uncomfortable with English had significantly higher FLA (mean ± SD: 3.23 ± 1.21) than comfortable patients (2.10 ± 0.97) (estimate [95% confidence interval] = -1.12 [-1.60 to -0.65], P < 0.0001). Additionally, females reported significantly higher FLA than males (estimate [95% confidence interval] = -0.48 [-0.95 to -0.01]).

Results indicate a significant relationship between discomfort with English and higher FLA. Findings confirm the presence of FLA in neurosurgical outpatient care. Further research should explore contributing factors of FLA, the impact on patient-physician interactions, and potential interventions to enhance communication in linguistically diverse populations.