2004 Campus-Community Partnerships

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Fighting Potential Resistance: A Community Approach Toward Decreasing Inappropriate Antibiotic Prescriptions in Latino Children

Abstract:

Latino children may be at increased risk of being inappropriately prescribed antibiotics compared to Asian and White children. The unnecessary use of antibiotics increases resistant bacteria both in the individual and community level. This, in turn, can potentially lead to greater morbidity, mortality, and health-care costs for Latinos in the U.S. Current research has begun to identify doctor-parent communication practices as a key determinant for inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions in English-speaking medical visits. None of these studies, however, have examined the communication practices involved in Spanish-speaking doctor-parent interactions. Likewise, no study has examined the degree to which the children of monolingual Spanish-speaking parents experience inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions. Focusing on language concordance, ethnicity, culture, and doctor-parent communication, this study will examine monolingual Spanish-speaking pediatric visits. Conversation analysis, surveys, in-depth interviews, and focus groups, will be used to measure the degree of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and explain why and how this disparity occurs in monolingual Spanish-speaking visits. Together with the California Latino Medical Association and an East Los Angeles theater group, Casa 0101, the findings will be used to create educational materials that aim to decrease inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions: an antibiotic resistance education video for Spanish-speaking parents and Continuing Medical Education courses for physicians.