Impact of a Bilingual/Bicultural Care Team on HIV-Related Health Outcomes

The purpose of this retrospective study was to examine the impact of a bilingual/bicultural care team on HIV-related health outcomes among Hispanic/Latino adults (N = 43) who received care in an academic HIV specialty clinic. Demographic and health data extracted from medical records from March 2005 to March 2007 were compared over two time periods: 1 year before and 1 year after implementation of the care team. Results indicated that there were more clinic visits per patient and that a higher percentage of individuals had suppressed HIV viral loads to < 50 copies/ml during the year after the team was implemented compared with the previous year. Results from this study suggest that provision of care by health care workers who are bilingual/bicultural, together with the use of culturally and linguistically appropriate patient education materials, may enhance health outcomes among Hispanic adults living with HIV infection.

Key words: AIDS, CD4+ T cell, health utilization, Hispanic, HIV, viral load