Research Article

Evaluating the Linguistic Appropriateness and Cultural Sensitivity of a Self-Report System for Spanish-Speaking Patients with Cancer

Table 1

Focus group interview topics and prompts.

Round 1

Communicating about symptoms and quality of life(1) Tell us about a time when you told your doctor or nurse about a symptom that was bothering you—like trouble sleeping or being sick to your stomach.
What was difficult or easy about this time?
(2) How do you usually let your doctor or nurse know about these things? How does speaking Spanish affect what you do or do not tell your doctor or nurse?
(3) Here is a list of symptoms and quality of life issues common for people during treatment for cancer. Is there anything missing? Is there anything on the list that is not easy to understand?

Using the Internet(4) How often do you use the Internet, and how do you access it—for example, from a computer, your phone? Do you know how to access the Internet yourself, or does someone help you?
(5) Are there websites or applications that you use to learn about health information or to track your activities, like exercise? What do you like about these websites or applications?

Responding to Spanish ESRA-C mock website(6) Why do you think this website would, or would not, be interesting or useful for you?
(7) Do you think most people can understand these questions clearly and give answers?
(8) What do you think patients and their families would find most helpful about this information? How can we make it better?

Round 2

Review of new patient narration(1) How well does this new version meet the ideas you had about hearing from a patient’s point of view?
(2) What thoughts did you have about the patient shown in the pictures who was telling her story? How similar are her concerns to the ones that you thought about when you were going to start treatment?

Review of new website home page and introduction(3) You saw the woman using the website to learn about getting help and then telling her nurse about problems she was having. How much does this encourage you to talk to your nurse or doctor?
(4) Did we explain well enough for you to understand that the answers you give on this website will go to your doctors and nurses?

Review of messages in revised patient education and communication coaching(5) If you put these three messages in order from most to least important for new patients to hear, what order would you put them in? Why?
(6) Are there any words in the website that do not sound right to you, or do you think we could say better?

Working with interpreters(7) If you have used professional interpreters, what have you learned about the process that you wish you had known before you started your treatment? If you have not, what would you like to know about using interpreters?

Emailing providers(8) Have you had experience emailing your providers, and if so, how well did that work?
(9) How would you feel about being able to email a question in Spanish to a translator or bilingual provider who could ask your doctor or nurse and reply to you?

Prioritizing future revisions(10) The last thing we want to show you is a list of things that people suggested should be added to the website. If you like any of these ideas, or another idea you have, which of these should we work on first?