LEP Prevalence in Southern New Jersey and The Use of Interpreting Services in Healthcare Settings

Language barriers pose a great challenge to populations of Limited English Proficiency (LEP) in understanding their health, diagnosis, and treatments in healthcare settings. Our research aimed to gain a better understanding of the language access needs in Southern New Jersey. We analyzed census data in order to determine the prevalence of LEP populations in Southern New Jersey, as well as the languages most spoken by LEP populations. Additionally, our research looked at the use of interpreting services in healthcare settings. In Camden county, specifically we found that the top 3 languages spoken by LEP populations were Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese. Through the Medscape Provider Survey, we also found that only 32% of providers ask patients about their language preferences, only 24% of providers indicated having a formal in-person or telephonic interpreting service, and 40% indicated asking family members of the patient to interpret as the main form of interpreting strategy. These results indicate a large prevalence of LEP populations in Southern New Jersey, especially Atlantic, Cumberland, and Camden county. While our research did not include an analysis of the language access resources made available in Southern New Jersey, one can beg the question of whether the interpreting services and language resources available match the prevalence of LEP populations in these communities. Our research on the use of interpreting services calls attention to the need to increase language accessibility in healthcare settings.