Writing in Plain Language for different cultures

The idea of changing some of your English messaging for different cultures is to adapt the writing and messaging to consider other cultural beliefs.  The overall objective is to move the patient behavior to action.  Consider some of these cultural beliefs that may change the content of your English Plain Language Materials.  It's important to note that strategies to improve health literacy for low-literate individuals are distinct from strategies for culturally diverse populations.  In order to adapt your message, you must be aware of the cultural barriers that may exist.

Hmong Culture

The Hmong language lacks words that correlate directly with Western words for disease processes. Consequently, interpretation in health care settings sometimes requires lengthy explanations and is sometimes impossible. The Hmong may have difficulty comprehending illnesses or diseases they have never encountered before, and some Hmong find chronic illnesses, such as diabetes and hypertension, particularly challenging to comprehend because of the concept of a controllable but not curable condition (Cha, 2003; Johnson, 2002).

HEP B and the Asian Community

Asians are at greater risk because to begin with, there are more Asian people infected with

hepatitis B than non-Asians. Although hepatitis B is not an "Asian disease", it certainly affects
hundreds of millions of Asians. The HEP B Smart campaign was created and targeted to the Asian populations primarily in the California area. This campaign was also translated into a variety of Asian languages: http://www.hepbsmart.com/en/default.aspx

Russian culture

Russian patients lack a concept of "chronic disease" based on their experiences with Soviet health care.  When writing for this population, strategies should be used to help this population understand that they need to continue with their diabetes or hypertension medications even though they may begin to feel better.

Where do I start with my communications?
Before you begin to adjust or create new communications for different cultural audiences, add qualitative pre-testing to explore diverse patients' understanding of instruments you are going to consider using.