title: Seeking Information on Behalf of Others: An Analysis of Calls to a Spanish-Language Radio Health Program.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Spanish-monolingual Latinos account for 13% of U.S. residents and experience multiple barriers to effective health communication. Information intermediaries/proxies mediate between the linguistically isolated and health care providers. This study characterizes the information needs of surrogate callers and their subjects to a U.S.-based Spanish-language radio health program.
  
  
  METHODS
  Content analysis of calls placed (N = 281 calls).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Women made 70% of calls; 39.1% of calls were on behalf of children, 11.0% on behalf of parents/older adults, and 18.5% on behalf of spouses/siblings/contemporary adults. Most common topics were disease symptoms/conditions (19.6%), cancer (13.9%), and reproduction/sexuality (12.9%). Calls for children were more likely than those for parents/other adults to pertain to current illness symptoms or conditions; calls for parents were more likely to be about cancer/chronic conditions. Half of all calls sought clarification about a previous medical encounter.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Information-seeking surrogates may represent a useful strategy for linguistic minorities to overcome structural and individual barriers to health information access. Results suggest that Latinos are willing to seek information on behalf of friends and family and highlight the need for improved, culturally and linguistically appropriate health communication sources.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Leveraging Latinos' natural familial social networks/willingness to share information may improve dissemination of culturally and linguistically appropriate health information. Further implications for patient activation and doctor-patient communication are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of California-Merced, CA, USA sramirez37@ucmerced.edu.
authors.forename: A Susana
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Ramirez
authors.affiliation: Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Hanover, NH, USA.
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Leyva
authors.affiliation: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, USA.
authors.forename: Kaitlin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Graff
authors.affiliation: National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors.forename: David E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Washington Hospital Center, Washington, DC, USA.
authors.forename: Elmer
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Huerta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003144:Communication Barriers; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D058015:Health Communication / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D057226:Information Seeking Behavior; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011845:Radio / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Hispanic; Latino; content analysis; doctor patient communication; health literacy; health promotion; information inequality; information seeking; mass media; patient activation; radio