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Language Barriers Among the Foreign-Born in Canada: Agreement of Self-Reported Measures and Persistence Over Time

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Abstract

Persistent language barriers are associated with poor health outcomes. The agreement between reporting a language barrier at time of immigration and in the 2007–2008 Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) was calculated using kappa scores among foreign-born individuals who arrived to Ontario, Canada between 1985 and 2005. A total of 2323 immigrants were included, with a mean (± SD) time of 10.2 ± 6.4 years between immigration and completing the CCHS. Only 6 % of immigrants reported a persistent language barrier, resulting in a low agreement between the two sources (kappa = 0.06, 95 % CI 0.042–0.086). Though immigrants were less likely to report a persistent language barrier the longer they had been in Canada, only 13 % of immigrants who had arrived <2 years ago reported one. Self-reported language barriers at time of immigration are poor indicators of persistent language barriers. There is a need for a better measure of language barriers among Canadian immigrants.

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Acknowledgments

Data were provided by CIC and the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This work was supported by a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) postdoctoral fellowship [to KO], CIHR Canadian Patient Safety Institute Chair in Patient Safety and Continuity of Care [to CMB]. This study was also supported by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, which is funded by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Dr. Booth is funded by Mid-Career Investigator Awards from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario and the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. None of the funding or supportive agencies were involved in the design or conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, or interpretation of the data; or preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript. The opinions, results, and conclusions reported in this paper are those of the authors and are independent from the funding sources. No endorsement by ICES or the Government of Ontario is intended or should be inferred.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, 399 Bathurst Street, 8EW-432E, Toronto, ON, M5T 2S8, Canada

    Karen Okrainec

  2. Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Gillian L. Booth, Simon Hollands & Chaim M. Bell

  3. Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Gillian L. Booth

  4. Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Gillian L. Booth & Chaim M. Bell

  5. Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Chaim M. Bell

  6. Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Karen Okrainec & Chaim M. Bell

Authors
  1. Karen Okrainec
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  2. Gillian L. Booth
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  3. Simon Hollands
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  4. Chaim M. Bell
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Correspondence to Karen Okrainec.

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Okrainec, K., Booth, G.L., Hollands, S. et al. Language Barriers Among the Foreign-Born in Canada: Agreement of Self-Reported Measures and Persistence Over Time. J Immigrant Minority Health 19, 50–56 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0279-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-015-0279-9

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