Acculturation,Socioeconomic Vulnerability,and Quality of Life in Spanish-Speaking and Bilingual Latino HIV-Infected Men and Women

Abstract

Little is known about the health-related QOL (HRQOL) of low-income, Latino men and women living with HIV. Monolingual Spanish-speaking Latino individuals may be at greater risk than bilingual men and women for poor HRQOL due to problems associated with language and cultural barriers. This study examined the health status and HRQOL of these two groups of clinic patients. The monolingual group had significantly lower levels of acculturation but did not differ from the bilingual group on any dimension of health status. This group also reported more disruptions on several dimensions of HRQOL. In a multivariate context, health status variables (as a block) accounted for the greatest proportion of variance in all three measures of HRQOL. The results did not support the hypothesis that acculturation mediates the impact of health status on HRQOL. More studies are needed to examine the impact of acculturation and socioeconomic vulnerability on health outcomes.

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