Skip to main content

BRIEF RESEARCH REPORT article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Health Education and Promotion
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1484790

Advancing Health Equity: Evaluating AI Translations of Kidney Donor Information for Spanish Speakers

Provisionally accepted
Oscar Garcia Valencia Oscar Garcia Valencia 1Charat Thongprayoon Charat Thongprayoon 1Caroline Jadlowiec Caroline Jadlowiec 2Shennen A Mao Shennen A Mao 3Napat Leeaphorn Napat Leeaphorn 3Pooja Budhiraja Pooja Budhiraja 4Nadeen Khoury Nadeen Khoury 5Justin Pham Justin Pham 1Iasmina Craici Iasmina Craici 1Maria L Gonzalez Suarez Maria L Gonzalez Suarez 1Wisit Cheungpasitporn Wisit Cheungpasitporn 1*
  • 1 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, United States
  • 2 Division of Transplant Surgery, Department of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ 85054, United States
  • 3 Department of Transplant Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL 32224, United States
  • 4 Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Phoenix, AZ, United States
  • 5 Division of Nephrology, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: Health equity and access to medical information remain critical challenges, particularly for Spanish-speaking Hispanic populations who face barriers to living kidney donation (LKD). ChatGPT, an advanced AI language model, offers potential for translating critical health information into Spanish. This study evaluates ChatGPT's translation efficacy to ensure accuracy and cultural relevance. Methods: ChatGPT versions 3.5 and 4.0 were used to translate 27 frequently asked questions (FAQs) related to LKD from Donate Life America's website. Translations were reviewed by native Spanish-speaking nephrologists using a standard rubric (1–5) to assess linguistic accuracy and cultural sensitivity. Results: The mean linguistic accuracy scores were 4.89 ± 0.32 for GPT-3.5 and 5.00 ± 0.00 for GPT-4.0 (p = 0.08). Excellent-quality translations (score = 5) for linguistic accuracy were 89% for GPT-3.5 and 100% for GPT-4.0 (p = 0.24). Cultural sensitivity scores were 4.89 ± 0.32 for both versions, with 89% excellent-quality translations (p = 1.00). Conclusion: ChatGPT 4.0 demonstrates strong potential to improve access to LKD information for Spanish-speaking Hispanic populations through accurate and culturally sensitive translations. These findings highlight the value of AI in reducing healthcare disparities and promoting equitable healthcare delivery.

    Keywords: health equity, artificial intelligence, Language Translation Models, Cultural Competency, Living kidney donation, Spanish-speaking populations, Healthcare Communication Barriers, ChatGPT

    Received: 21 Sep 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Garcia Valencia, Thongprayoon, Jadlowiec, Mao, Leeaphorn, Budhiraja, Khoury, Pham, Craici, Gonzalez Suarez and Cheungpasitporn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wisit Cheungpasitporn, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.