Can any of our Hispanic DU-ers help me with a question?

[Aristus]

I have a very large Hispanic patient population, not all of whom speak English. I use a Spanish interpreter for their visits, and I'm working on improving my own Spanish, as well.

My Hispanic patients all seem to demonstrate a peculiar anomaly that doesn't feature in patients of other ethnicities: they invariably refer to any symptom they come in complaining of as 'dizziness'. When I question them as to the symptoms and the history of their current problem, the symptom tends to be the furthest thing from dizziness; headache, stomach pain, diarrhea, whatever.

Any idea why everything is described as 'dizziness'?

One of my staff assistants told me that Hispanic patients are instructed (by whom? Friends? Family members?) to tell the medical provider that they have dizziness, regardless of the actual medical complaint. But my assistant isn't Hispanic herself, and I wondered if this was misinformation, or prejudice, or what.

I want to be better at evaluating and treating my patients, especially if there is a language barrier.

Anyone have any answers for this?

[latinaliberal]

1. Latina DU-er here

Exactly what are they saying? Is it fatiga, or Mareo

[Aristus]

2. Thank you for your response.

I've heard both words when my interpreter is helping me take the history from the patient.

Since you suggested that it may come down to the use of two different words with similar meanings, it occurred to me that when the symptom 'dizzness' appears on my clinic schedule, it may be from a call center employee who is Hispanic, and puts down the most reasonable interpretation of the word the patient used. Does that make sense?

[latinaliberal]

4. Latina Du-er

Well, Fatiga can mean many things, its sort of a catch-all word in some aspect, it can be used when you are tired, have no energy, even when you are hungry, or having issues with asthma. Mareo means dizzy.
Hope this is helpful.

[Aristus]

5. Very much so. Thank you.

[jberryhill]

3. Mareo...

Isn't that also used for general nausea, like seasickness or airsickness, instead of the narrower meaning of "dizzy" in English, which would be closer to <<vértigo>>?