ArticleMedical care2012
Language barriers and understanding of hospital discharge instructions.
Article in Medical care, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 107 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
107 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Bridging language gaps in healthcare: a systematic review of the practical implementation of neural machine translation technologies in clinical settings.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2025Pooled it
- Association between language discordance and unplanned hospital readmissions or emergency department revisits: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ quality & safety · 2024Pooled it
- Association of Language Barriers With Perioperative and Surgical Outcomes: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2023Pooled it
- The safety of health care for ethnic minority patients: a systematic review.International journal for equity in health · 2020Pooled it
- Collaborative Care for Depression among Patients with Limited English Proficiency: a Systematic Review.Journal of general internal medicine · 2018Pooled it
- Mi Puente (My Bridge) Care Transitions Program for Hispanic/Latino Adults with Multimorbidity: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of general internal medicine · 2023Trial
- Cervical Agenesis and Compressive Hydronephrosis in a Patient With Limited English Proficiency.Cureus · 2026Article
- Language Serving Hospitals and Their Impact on Readmission for Surgical Patients With a Non-English Primary Language: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Annals of surgery · 2026Article
- A quality improvement project to optimize the neonatology research experience for families.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- Adapting a Complex Health Intervention Guided by the Core Functions and Form Model: A Methodology and Case Example of Participatory Adaptation.Research square · 2026Article
- Pediatric Gastrostomy Educational Materials: A Health Literacy Assessment.Clinical pediatrics · 2026Article
- Article
- Language Barriers and Other Determinants of Post-Intensive Care Unit Follow-Up: A 5-Year Review.Mayo Clinic proceedings. Innovations, quality & outcomes · 2026Article
- Language concordance in the digital collection of patient-reported outcome measures.JAMIA open · 2026Article
- Impact of ethnicity on long-term mortality following hospitalization for acute decompensated heart failure: a retrospective cohort study.BMC cardiovascular disorders · 2026Article
- "Language barriers and patient safety in supportive care: Two case reports bridging system-level gaps".Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Telemedicine for new immigrant children in the US: a tool for equity or another layer of disparity?Frontiers in pediatrics · 2026Review
- Adapting a complex health intervention guided by the core functions and forms model: a methodology and case example of participatory adaptation.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Medical and health science students' interpretation of miscommunication in simulated scenarios: the role of language, gender, and perceived professional authority.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Using learner verification and transcreation to develop multicultural patient education materials for acute respiratory tract infections to decrease inappropriate antibiotic prescribing.PEC innovation · 2025Article
47 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEffective communication at hospital discharge is necessary for an optimal transition and to avoid adverse events. We investigated the association of a language barrier with patient understanding of discharge instructions.
methodsSpanish-speaking, Chinese-speaking, and English-speaking patients admitted to 2 urban hospitals between 2005 and 2008, comparing patient understanding of follow-up appointment type, and medication category and purpose between limited English-proficient (LEP) and English-proficient patients.
resultsOf the 308 patients, 203 were LEP. Rates of understanding were low overall for follow-up appointment type (56%) and the 3 medication outcomes (category 48%, purpose 55%, both 41%). In unadjusted analysis, LEP patients were less likely than English-proficient patients to know appointment type (50% vs. 66%; P=0.01), medication category (45% vs. 54%; P=0.05), and medication category and purpose combined (38% vs. 47%; P=0.04), but equally likely to know medication purpose alone. These results persisted in the adjusted models for medication outcomes: LEP patients had lower odds of understanding medication category (odds ratio 0.63; 95% confidence interval, 0.42-0.95); and category/purpose (odds ratio 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.39-0.89).
conclusionsUnderstanding of appointment type and medications after discharge was low, with LEP patients demonstrating worse understanding of medications. System interventions to improve communication at hospital discharge for all patients, and especially those with LEP, are needed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.