ABSTRACT
Hispanics are the fastest growing ethnic group in the United States (Ennis, Rios-Vargas, & Albert, 2011; U.S. Census Bureau, 2012a, 2012b) and, although joined by a common language, the U.S. Spanish-speaking community is an incredibly heterogeneous group representing the cultural, educational, linguistic and socioeconomic backgrounds of more than 20 different Spanish-speaking countries across three continents (Gasquoine, 2009). Level of language proficiency and degree of bilingualism vary (Taylor, Lopez, Martinez, & Velasco, 2012), with one of every eight people in the U.S. over age 5 speaking Spanish at home (Shin & Kominski, 2010; U.S. Census Bureau, 2011a). Moreover, the socio-demographics (i.e., culture, education, and socioeconomic status) of this community reveal a myriad of factors that influence health care practices in the U.S. Research has revealed that many individuals in the Hispanic community do not seek medical services due to lack of financial resources, language barriers and because in the case of neurode-generative conditions, neurological impairments are often attributed to the normal aging process (Perez-Stable, 2007; Sentell, Shumway, & Snowden, 2007).
