University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL, USA.
Department of Surgery, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA.
Surg Endosc. 2023 Aug;37(8):6395-6401. doi: 10.1007/s00464-023-09978-9. Epub 2023 Mar 13.
Healthcare disparities continue to be an ongoing struggle in Bariatrics. Limited availability of Spanish online material may be a correctible barrier for accessibility to Hispanic patients. We sought to evaluate accredited Bariatric Centers of Excellence (COE) for Spanish readability via their websites to determine accessibility for Spanish speakers.
This was an internet research study. 103 COE accredited by American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS) and the American College of Surgeons (ACS) were evaluated and assigned one of five Spanish Visibility Categories. The United States was divided into 4 regions. Regional Spanish visibility was calculated by dividing each category count by the number of institutions in each region. County Spanish-speaking populations were obtained from the US Census Bureau's 2009-2013 American Community Survey. Differences in their distributions across the Spanish Visibility Categories were investigated using the Mann-Whitney U test.
25% of websites were translatable to Spanish, and a regional discrepancy was found with 61% translatable in the West, 19% in Northeast, 19% in Midwest, and 15% in South. Median Spanish-speaking population was higher in counties where websites were translatable to Spanish than where websites were not translatable.
Healthcare disparities in Bariatrics continue to be an ongoing struggle. We suggest that Spanish readability for ASMBS ACS COE websites should be improved regardless of geographic differences in Spanish-speaking populations. We believe it would be valuable for these websites to have standards for readability of Spanish and other languages.
在减重外科领域，医疗保健差异仍然是一个持续存在的问题。西班牙语在线资料的有限可用性可能是西班牙语患者获取信息的一个可纠正的障碍。我们试图通过他们的网站评估美国代谢和减重外科学会 (ASMBS) 和美国外科医师学会 (ACS) 认可的减重卓越中心 (COE) 的西班牙语可读性，以确定西班牙语使用者的可访问性。
这是一项互联网研究。评估了 103 个获得 ASMBS 和 ACS 认可的 COE，并将其分配到西班牙语可见性类别之一。美国被分为 4 个区域。每个区域的西班牙语可见性是通过将每个类别中的机构数量除以该区域的机构数量来计算的。从美国人口普查局的 2009-2013 年美国社区调查中获得了县西班牙语人口数据。使用曼-惠特尼 U 检验研究它们在西班牙语可见性类别中的分布差异。
25%的网站可以翻译成西班牙语，并且发现了一个区域差异，在西部地区有 61%的网站可以翻译成西班牙语，东北地区有 19%，中西部地区有 19%，南部地区有 15%。可以翻译成西班牙语的网站所在县的西班牙语人口中位数高于无法翻译成西班牙语的网站所在县。
减重外科领域的医疗保健差异仍然是一个持续存在的问题。我们建议，无论西班牙语人口的地理差异如何，都应提高 ASMBS ACS COE 网站的西班牙语可读性。我们认为，这些网站制定西班牙语和其他语言可读性标准将是有价值的。
