Spanish speakers might often get bad translations of prescription medications, posing a health hazard, a recent study in the journal Pediatrics indicates. The authors of the study surveyed Spanish language labels from pharmacies in the Bronx, New York, and found that half of the labels were incompletely or incorrectly translated. From the study:
Phrases that were not translated included “dropperfuls,” “apply topically,” “for 7 days,” “for 30 days,” “apply to affected areas,” “with juice,” “take with food,” and “once a day.”
Deviations included errors such as “by the little” for the translation of the misspelled Spanish word poca (for boca, meaning “mouth”), “two kiss” for the translation of the misspelled Spanish phrase dos veses (for dos veces, meaning “two times”), and “eleven times a day” for the translation of the phrase “once a day.”
Most of the pharmacies surveyed used computer programs to generate the translations. The authors worry that translations from less common languages may be even worse.
“Because Spanish is probably the easiest to translate in the health care industry, it is worrisome to consider what the status of translation for other languages might be.”
Read an abstract of the study here. Here’s a related article from HealthDay news (via Yahoo! News).
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