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- Title
Does being bilingual in English and Chinese influence changes in quality of life scale scores? Evidence from a prospective, population based study.
- Authors
Thumboo, Julian; Yin-Bun Cheung; Machin, David; Pao-Hsii Feng; Mee-Leng Boey; Szu-tien Thio; Kok-Yong Fong; Cheung, Yin-Bun; Feng, Pao-Hsii; Boey, Mee-Leng; Thio, Szu-tien; Fong, Kok-Yong
- Abstract
<bold>Background: </bold>Bilinguals differ from monolinguals in language use, but the influence of bilingualism on changes in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) scores is not known.<bold>Objective: </bold>To determine the influence of bilingualism on changes in HRQoL scores.<bold>Research Design: </bold>A prospective cohort study of a population-based, disproportionately stratified random sample of monolingual or bilingual ethnic Chinese who completed the Short-Form 36 Health Survey (SF-36) in English or Chinese twice in 2 years. Least squares regression models were used to assess the influence of bilingualism on SF-36 scores, while adjusting for the influence of questionnaire language and determinants of HRQoL.<bold>Results: </bold>Usable English and Chinese questionnaires were returned by 1013 and 910 subjects respectively (aged 21-65 years, 48.5% female, 52.8% bilingual). Bilinguals differed from monolinguals in known determinants of HRQoL (being younger and better educated), changes in determinants of HRQoL over 2 years (more bilinguals had changes in work or marital status) and had mean SF-36 scores that were up to 10 points higher than monolinguals. After adjusting for these differences, bilingualism did not influence 2 year change scores for any of 8 SF-36 scales.<bold>Conclusion: </bold>Bilingualism did not influence changes in HRQoL scores over 2 years in this large, population-based study of subjects fluent in English and/or Chinese (representing an alphabet and/or pictogram based language respectively).
- Subjects
BILINGUALISM; CHINESE language; ENGLISH language; QUALITY of life; LANGUAGE &; languages; QUESTIONNAIRES
- Publication
Quality of Life Research, 2005, Vol 14, Issue 2, p529
- ISSN
0962-9343
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1007/s11136-004-4848-y