Language Barrier Often Spells Trouble For Those Taking Rx Medications

Drug Store News - April 4, 2003

According to a recent survey, nearly 10 percent of the pharmacy patients who speak English as a second language incorrectly dispense prescription medications to their children.

One-third of all ESL speakers themselves admitted to not being clear on their pharmaceutical regimen because of the language barrier between them and their doctor.

Russian-speaking and Spanish-speaking respondents had the most trouble with understanding their prescriptions, with 52 percent and 57 percent, respectively, reporting difficulties. Comparatively, 19 percent of participants of Indian descent and 8 percent of Chinese speaking participants had difficulty understanding their prescriptions.

The survey of 592 ESL speakers was commissioned by translation company TransPerfect Translations for the week of March 10 to 14 in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. All interviews were done in person in the participant’s native language. Of the participants, some 20 percent were Chinese, approximately 17 percent were Indian, 33 percent were Russian and 31 percent were Spanish.

About TransPerfect
With revenue of over $250 million, TransPerfect is the largest privately held language services provider in the world. From offices in 66 cities on 5 continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in over 100 languages to multinationals worldwide. With a global network of over 4,000 linguists and subject-area specialists, TransPerfect is the largest translation company to be fully ISO 9001:2008 and EN 15038:2006 certified. TransPerfect is headquartered in New York and has regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com.