The provision of information by health promotion units to people of Asian origin living in the UK

Studies suggest that people with a limited command of English find it difficult to obtain adequate access to healthcare and health information. Language barriers mean that they have insufficient knowledge about the range of health services available, and very little health-related information meets their individual language needs.

The aim of the study discussed in this paper was to examine the potential for new technology to provide better access to health information for Asian people who cannot communicate in English. A questionnaire was sent to a purposive sample of 90 HPUs (health promotion units) to gain some knowledge from health promotion specialists concerning this issue.

The results of this study revealed that there are gaps in information provision for non-English speaking Asian people. Videos and verbal presentations were considered to be the two most effective formats of information for use with this target group. Respondents valued interactivity, as they said that people should be able to ask questions about the health information they see. HPUs are beginning to attempt to use new technology to provide health information in Asian languages, although many respondents are aware of potential problems associated with this. The study concludes that new technology can be useful if simple, user-friendly systems such as touch-screens are used. New technologies can also be made more interactive than leaflets and videos.