Abstract
Objective: To assess the impacts of survey languages on participation and representativeness of the study subjects in a health survey in a Chinese community in Australia. Method: A random sample of 500 ethnic Chinese in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia was surveyed during November 2005 to February 2006 by using a bilingual survey questionnaire in their preferred languages, i.e. English or Chinese. Results: 210 questionnaires were returned. Two-thirds of the participants chose to answer the questionnaires in Chinese. Besides being older with relatively lower income, they were more likely to be married, have a Chinese family doctor, and visit a Chinese medicine practitioner. Fewer of them have visited the Diabetes Australia website or read any educational information materials about diabetes. Conclusions & Implication: The multilingual approach is crucial to improving participation and representativeness of samples from ethnic populations.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 322-324 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Aug 2008 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Chinese
- Diabetes
- Health service utilisation
- Health survey
- Native language
