Resources in Spanish for Consumer Health Information
Información de Salud para los Consumidores en Español
by Sherrie Kline Smith
Consumer Health Information Specialist
San Salvador, El Salvador
klinesmiths@usa.net
April, 2001
The material presented here is not comprehensive, but it should provide an excellent beginning for finding consumer health information.
"While librarians are experts in identifying and providing information, they are not practicing health professionals who interpret information and give advice. The librarian's role is to provide access to a range of authoritative materials, but he or she cannot be held responsible for the scientific accuracy or currency of all materials in the collection. Librarians' activities are oriented towards the social and community goals of producing a healthy society as well as assisting the individual to make more informed health decisions."
Gateways
Arkansas Children's Hospital Family Resource Library:
http://www.ach.uams.edu/frlibrary/spanish patient_education_website.html
Jesse Medical Library and Information Center of Loma Linda University:
http://www.llu.edu/llumc/jmlic/chsites.htm#Spanish
These two sites are good places to begin. They provide links to appropriate sites on topics such as cancer, heart, diseases, AIDS, etc.
National Network of Libraries of Medicine South Central Region: Consumer Health Material in Spanish:
http://www.nnlm.nlm.nih.gov/scr/conhlth/chspanish.htm
Provides links to Associations/Foundations/Organizations/Other; Book and Video Distributors (See also end of this list for more resources.); Periodicals; Government Agencies/Resources; and State/Local/Regional Resources.
North Carolina AHEC Latino Health Resource Center:
http://www.hhcc.arealahec.dst.nc.us.
An excellent site to begin with. It has links to information for both professionals as well as the consumer. For links to sites with health information in Spanish, click on Health Information.
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU)
http://www.ohsu.edu/library/patiented/esplinks.shtml or
http://www.ohsu.edu/library/patiented/links.shtml#noneng
Has links to low-literacy materials in Spanish.
Search Engines
Yahoo:
http://español.Yahoo.com
Select Medicina or Enfermedades under Salud. Medicina links to most major areas of medicine like surgery, cardiology, etc. plus medical journals in Spanish. Enfermedades has over 70 subsets including autism, hanta virus, Down's and other genetic syndromes, infectious diseases, and addiction.
General Health
Center for Disease Control:
http://www.cdc.gov/spanish/default.htm
This covers a wide variety of topics including allergies, asthma, cancer, TB, mental health, drug addiction, diabetes, dental, as well as pages for specific groups: patients, women, men, children, teachers, adolescents, and health providers.
EcoMédico Sanitas:
http://www.ecomedic.com/em/indice.htm
All-Spanish site with links to diet and health, intervention and procedures, diseases, prevention, first aid, and some medications.
Family Health International:
http://www.fhi.org/sp/fhis.html (Spanish version)
Deals mainly with family planning and related issues including HIV/AIDS and effects on women's health.
Healthfinder:
http://www.healthfinder.gov/justforyou/español/default.htm
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
National Center for Farmworker Health:
http://www.ncfh.org/pateduc.htm
Has patient education materials/handouts for consumers with low literacy that can be downloaded. Check back periodically for newly added topics.
Medlineplus: Hispanic American Health:
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/hispanicamericanhealth.html
Selected topics in Spanish, many in easy-to-read formats.
NOAH: New York Online Access to Health:
http://www.noah-health.org/index.html
Excellent site. You can toggle back and forth between English and Spanish. Can access information for patients and soon pharmaceutical information.
Salud.com:
http://www.salud.com/
All-Spanish site with extensive coverage of health/disease topics. Includes "Ask a Doctor" and prescription drug information. Has affiliations with the University of Miami, University of Southern California, among others, and subscribes to the HON code.
Salud Latina:
http://www.salud-latina.com
All-Spanish site with health/disease information, web links, chat rooms, and "ask the doctor," alternative medicine, and a health dictionary.
Salud Miami:
http://www.saludmiami.com/
In Spanish, English, or Portuguese, this site lists services available at 9 Miami-area hospitals.
Pleasant words are as a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
Asthma
American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI):
http://www.aaaai.org
Click on Patient/Public Resource Center; click on Public Education Materials - Tips to Remember - Spanish. Scroll down to Spanish list or click again on Go to Spanish.
Cancer
CancerNet en Español - Instituto Nacional del Cáncer:
http://cancernet.nci.nih.gov/sp_menu.htm
Moffitt Cancer Center:
http://www.moffitt.usf.edu/pated/español.htm
Diabetes
National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases:
http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health/spanish.htm
Domestic Violence
Center for Prevention of Sexual and Domestic Violence: An education resource on abuse and religion:
http://www.cpsdv.org/Store/languages.htm
This organization also offers training and seminars.
Departamento de Derechos de la Mujer de AFSCME:
http://www.afscme.org/spanish/abuso.htm
Fundación Mujeres:
http://www.fundacionmujeres.es/fondo/
Based in Madrid, Spain, with links to other sites.
Fundación Puntos de Encuentro:
http://www.puntos.org.ni/
Based in Managua, Nicaragua.
Instituto Social y Politico de la Mujer:
http://www.ispm.org.ar/violencia/home-violencia2.html
National Crime Prevention Council: Domestic Violence–The Hidden Crime
http://www.ncpc.org/esp7.htm
National Domestic Violence Hotline:
http://www.ndvh.org/index.html
"Are You or is Someone You Know Being Emotionally or Physically Abused?" (Scroll down to Spanish)
Sacramento, California, Police Department:
http://www.sacpd.org/domvio-s.html
Texas Association Against Sexual Assault:
http://www.taasa.org/=en_espanol.htm
Vida Humana Internacional:
http://www.vidahumana.org/vidafam/violence/violence_index.html
This site has information covering other areas like family planning, abortion, alcoholism, the Catholic Church, etc.
See also Women's Health below.
Heart
Sociedad Española de Cardiologia; Fundación Española del Corazon:
http://www.secardiologia.es
Mental Health
American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:
http://www.aacap.org/publications/apntsfam/index.htm
Center for Mental Health Services (Servicios Nacional de Salud Mental):
http://www.mentalhealth.org/español/
Instituto Nacional de Salud Mental (Peru):
http://www.rcp.net.pe/INSM-HONORIO-DELGADO/
Red Metropolitana de Salud Mental:
http://www.redsaludmental.com/
See also Mental Health in NOAH; Salud Latina; and Women's Health.
Pediatrics
Mi Pediatra:
http://www.mipediatra.com.mx/
Information about children's health.
PrenatalEd Beginnings:
http://www.prenataled.com/language.htm
You may order the newly updated (2000) version of Beginnings: Una Guia Practica Para Su Embarazo via this web site.
Salud de los niños (Women's Health):
http://www.4woman.gov/spanish/Niños.htm
National Women's Health Information Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has several resources in Spanish on children's health.
Un mundo de información acerca del niño:
http://ccr.dsi.uanl.mx/~macorona/menu.html
All-Spanish site about children's health beginning with health of the mother during pregnancy. Pharmaceutical/Prescription Drug Information
The American College of Clinical Pharmacy:
http://www.accp.com/strPmed.html
Publishes a Pediatric Medication Education Text that presents easy-to read, one-page patient/family education sheets that are indexed by generic drug names and printed in English on one side and Spanish on the reverse.
Gold Standard Multimedia's Clinical Pharmacology 2000:
http://cp.gsm.com/
Has section on Patient Education Handouts in both English and Spanish. This excellent site has been free, but soon will charge for access to this information. You have to navigate in English. At login screen, under Destination choose Patient Education, and then select Español.
RXList:
http://www.rxlist.com/interact.htm#faq
Necessary to search by drug name, then select the FAQ, then select in Spanish. They claim to have 3,000 patient handouts in Spanish.
Substance Abuse
Instituto para la Estudio de las Adicciones:
All text is in Spanish. Site is based in Spain.
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information, a service of SAMHSA (The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration:
http://www.health.org/catalog/spanish.asp
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Pamphlets:
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures.htm#espanol
Women's Health
Gine-web:
http://www.unizar.es/gine/hola.htm
OBGYN.Net Latina:
http://latina.obgyn.net/español/
Women's Health:
http://www.4woman.gov/
National Women's Health Information Center of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Choose En Español about halfway down the left side for information on the following topics as well as links to other sites.
List and Glossary of Medical Terms: Spanish
Multilingual Glossary of Technical and Medical Terms in Nine European Languages:
http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~rvdstich/eugloss/welcome.html
Patient Education Handouts or Videos in Spanish
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
http://www.ahcpr.gov/consumer/espanoix.htm
Information on selected topics available directly on the web or may be ordered (most free) from the AHRQ.
The American Academy of Family Physicians:
https://secure.aafp.org/cgi-bin/catalog.pl
Offers a CD of patient education handouts that includes 175 patient handouts in English and Spanish; the index is in English. Length ranges from 2 to 5 pages, with a space for special instructions. Sixth- to eighth-grade reading level, and illustrations are included on many of the handouts. From the web page above select Patient Education and Public Health, then select AAFP Patient Handouts on CD-ROM.
Injoy Videos:
http://www.injoyvideos.com/
Select "Spanish Titles."
Milner Fenwick:
http://www.milner-fenwick.com/
Most titles in Spanish, but you first have to select a title to discover if it's also available in Spanish.
The National Council on Patient Information for information on medications:
http://www.talkaboutrx.org/select.html#spanish
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Pamphlets:
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/
Select Publicaciones en Español on the left side of the screen.
North Carolina AHEC Latino Health Resource Center: (Core Resources)
http://www.hhcc.arealahec.dst.nc.us/corerescat.html
US Food and Drug Administration Publications:
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/catalog/spanlist.html
Some are available online, others have to be ordered.
Utah Department of Health Spanish Resource List:
http://hlunix.hl.state.ut.us/hrm/ethnic/spanish.html
Includes a long list of pamphlets covering a wide variety of topics. With the pamphlet name is the company or organization where it can be obtained. The list is in English.
Additional References
Crossfield, Nancy L. "¡Salud!" Locating Spanish-Language Health Information," Consumer Connections, Consumer & Patient Health Information Section Newsletter, Vol. 16, No. 2, Spring 2000.
Información de Salud para los Consumidores. Alan M. Rees, ed. with Irene Affranchino-Miniello. Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1998. (Oryx Press no longer owns the title.)
© Copyright Sherrie Kline Smith