Cargando…

What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland

BACKGROUND: Language barriers have a major impact on both the quality and the costs of health care. While there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the detrimental effects of language barriers on the quality of health care provision, less is known about their impact on costs. This purpose of...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Bischoff, Alexander, Denhaerynck, Kris
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939598/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20731818
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-248
_version_ 1782186746651344896
author Bischoff, Alexander
Denhaerynck, Kris
author_facet Bischoff, Alexander
Denhaerynck, Kris
author_sort Bischoff, Alexander
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Language barriers have a major impact on both the quality and the costs of health care. While there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the detrimental effects of language barriers on the quality of health care provision, less is known about their impact on costs. This purpose of this study was to investigate the association between language barriers and the costs of health care. METHODS: The data source was a representative set of asylum seekers whose health care was provided by a Swiss Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO). A cross-sectional survey was conducted: data was collected on all the asylum seekers' health care costs including consultations, diagnostic examinations, medical interventions, stays in the clinic, medication, and interpreter services. The data were analysed using path analysis. RESULTS: Asylum seekers showed higher health care costs if there were language barriers between them and the health professionals. Most of these increased costs were attributable to those patients who received interpreter services: they used more health care services and more material. However, these patients also had a lower number of visits to the HMO than patients who faced language barriers but did not receive interpreter services. CONCLUSION: Language barriers impact health care costs. In line with the limited literature, the results of this study seem to show that interpreter services lead to more targeted health care, concentrating higher health care utilisation into a smaller number of visits. Although the initial costs are higher, it can be posited that the use of interpreter services prevents the escalation of long-term costs. A future study specially designed to examine this presumption is needed.
format Text
id pubmed-2939598
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2010
publisher BioMed Central
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-29395982010-09-16 What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland Bischoff, Alexander Denhaerynck, Kris BMC Health Serv Res Research Article BACKGROUND: Language barriers have a major impact on both the quality and the costs of health care. While there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the detrimental effects of language barriers on the quality of health care provision, less is known about their impact on costs. This purpose of this study was to investigate the association between language barriers and the costs of health care. METHODS: The data source was a representative set of asylum seekers whose health care was provided by a Swiss Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO). A cross-sectional survey was conducted: data was collected on all the asylum seekers' health care costs including consultations, diagnostic examinations, medical interventions, stays in the clinic, medication, and interpreter services. The data were analysed using path analysis. RESULTS: Asylum seekers showed higher health care costs if there were language barriers between them and the health professionals. Most of these increased costs were attributable to those patients who received interpreter services: they used more health care services and more material. However, these patients also had a lower number of visits to the HMO than patients who faced language barriers but did not receive interpreter services. CONCLUSION: Language barriers impact health care costs. In line with the limited literature, the results of this study seem to show that interpreter services lead to more targeted health care, concentrating higher health care utilisation into a smaller number of visits. Although the initial costs are higher, it can be posited that the use of interpreter services prevents the escalation of long-term costs. A future study specially designed to examine this presumption is needed. BioMed Central 2010-08-23 /pmc/articles/PMC2939598/ /pubmed/20731818 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-248 Text en Copyright ©2010 Alexander Bischoff and Kris Denhaerynck; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bischoff, Alexander
Denhaerynck, Kris
What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland
title What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland
title_full What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland
title_fullStr What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland
title_full_unstemmed What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland
title_short What do language barriers cost? An exploratory study among asylum seekers in Switzerland
title_sort what do language barriers cost? an exploratory study among asylum seekers in switzerland
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2939598/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20731818
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-10-248
work_keys_str_mv AT bischoffalexander whatdolanguagebarrierscostanexploratorystudyamongasylumseekersinswitzerland
AT denhaerynckkris whatdolanguagebarrierscostanexploratorystudyamongasylumseekersinswitzerland