Does cultural and linguistic diversity affect health-related outcomes for people with stroke at discharge from hospital?

AbstractPurpose: Primary purpose to determine if cultural and linguistic diversity affects health-related outcomes in people with stroke at discharge from hospital and secondary purpose to explore whether interpreter use alters these outcomes. Method: Systematic search of: Cochrane, PEDro, CINAHL, Medline, Pubmed, Embase, PsycINFO and Ageline databases. Publications were classified into whether they examined the impact of diversity in culture, or language or culture and language combined. Quality of evidence available was summarized using Best Evidence Synthesis. Results: Eleven studies met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Best Evidence Synthesis indicated conflicting evidence about the impact of culture alone and language barriers alone on health-related outcomes. There was strong evidence that hospital length of stay does not differ between groups when the combined impact of culture and language was investigated. Conflicting evidence was found for other outcomes including admission, discharge and c...