Construction of Francophone families’ health literacy in a linguistic minority situation

With the 
increase 
in
 international 
mobility,
 healthcare 
systems
 should 
no 
longer 
be 
ignoring
 language
 barriers. 
In
 addition
 to
 the
 benefit
 of
 reducing
 long‐term
 costs,
 immigrant‐friendly
 organizations
 should
 be
 concerned
 with
 mitigating 
the
 way
 language
 barriers
 increase
 individuals’
 social
 vulnerabilities
 and
 inequities
 in
 health
 care
 and
 health
 status.
 This
 paper
 reports
 the
 findings
 of
 a
 qualitative,
 exploratory
 study
 of
 the
 health
 literacy
 of
 28
 Francophone
 families
 living
 in
 a
 linguistic‐minority
 situation
 in
 Canada.
 Analysis
 of
 interviews
 revealed
 that
 participants’
 social
 vulnerability,
 mainly
 due
 to
 their
 limited
 social
 and
 informational
 networks,
 influenced
 the
 construction
 of
 family
 health
 literacy.
 Disparities
 in
 access
 to
 healthcare
 services
 could
 be
 decreased
 by
 having
 health
 professionals’
 work
 in
 alliance
 with
 Francophone
 community
 groups
 and
 by
 hiring
 bilingual
 health
 professionals.
 Linguistic
 isolation
 and
 lack
 of
 knowledge
 about
 local
 cultural
 organizations
 among
 Francophone
 immigrants 
were
 two 
important
 findings
 of
 this
 study.