The perception of health in the Hispanic older person

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to describe perception of health, perception of emotional well-being, and perception of functional ability of Spanish-speaking (SS) and Englishspeaking (ES) self-identified Hispanics of the Carondelet Community Nursing Organization of southeastern Arizona. In this secondary analysis of data from an original Medicare demonstration project, SS and ES subsamples did not differ in most demographic characteristics, but did differ in educational level (~<.01) and income (~<.01). There were no differences between subsamples in perception of health, perception of emotional well-being, or perception of functional ability. Implications for nursing include considering limited educational and financial resources in the Spanish-speaking population and not assuming Hispanic perception of health differs with language preference.