Choice of Words in Doctor–Patient Communication: An Analysis of Health-Related Internet Sites

Abstract

As more and more doctor–patient communication is happening online, it is important to know how doctors adapt to their patients' knowledge level and ensure that they make themselves understood in this medium. This article examined question–answer sets from health archives to see whether medical experts adapted their answers to the way laypersons verbalized their concerns. The authors analyzed word use and further stylistic variables in question–answer pairs to test 2 hypotheses: (a) the lexical entrainment hypothesis predicting that experts would entrain to patients' word use; and (b) the linguistic copresence hypothesis predicting that the more medical terminology used by the patient, the more demanding experts' answers would be. Results provided evidence that the patients' choice of words impacts the experts' answers. Practical implications are discussed for improving mutual understanding in online health advice.

Notes

¹Of course, the application of the linguistic copresence heuristic cannot be tested directly without illuminating experts' cognitive processes (see Bromme, Jucks, & Wagner, 2005).

²The numbers of words used in each question and answer were counted using Microsoft word-processing software. Questions and answers varied widely on many indicators. Length of question varied between 12 and 422 words (M = 117.33, SD = 74.28); length of answers varied between 16 and 360 words (M = 107.24, SD = 57.86). Nonetheless, questions and answers did not differ statistically in terms of text length, t(119) = 1.20, ns.

Duden 5 - Das Fremdwörterbuch [Duden 5: Dictionary of foreign words]. (2002). Mannheim, Germany: Bibliographisches Institut.

Jucks, R., Bromme, R., & Becker, B.-M. (in press). Lexical entrainment – Is expert's word use adapted to the addressee? Manuscript accepted for publication. Discourse Processes.