Medical Terminology in Intercultural Health Interactions

ABSTRACT

The terminology and jargon used in medical interactions can pose particular challenges to understanding for patients, healthcare providers, and mediators in cases where a language barrier is present. Common medical words used in the interactional space may mean different things to each party present. This study focuses on 79 mediated and nonmediated South African and Italian recorded healthcare interactions in which a language barrier was present. Using a hybrid sociolinguistic approach, we examined how patients, mediators, and healthcare providers orient to the use of medical terminology and how both parties demonstrate understanding of terminology used in the interactional space. Talk-extrinsic data in the form of interviews with South African patients revealed a frequent lack of understanding of key terminology, yet we found few displays of a lack of understanding in the interactional data nor explicit requests by patients for clarification of terminology not understood. In both data sets, patients made use of medical terminology infrequently and usually when describing their symptoms. Healthcare providers used medical terminology quite regularly. We found limited evidence of explicit verification of patients’ understanding of medical terminology by healthcare providers or mediators. Given the additional communication complexities inherent in health interactions where a language barrier is present and patients’ tendency not to request clarification, the healthcare provider has a special responsibility to ensure that all parties understand the terminology brought into the interactional space. Direct checks of patient understanding of terminology can provide an effective and efficient way of revealing comprehension and establishing shared membership.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the participants, research sites and research assistants involved in the South African studies described in this paper. Thanks to Claudio Baraldi and Laura Gavioli for inviting us to contribute to this project and for making the Italian data available for analysis. The late Claire Penn had the idea to look at medical terminology in these data sets, and her initial input and guidance on this project is gratefully acknowledged. Her research and mentoring in the area of multilingual communication in health contexts has significantly shaped our own research interests in this area.

Disclosure of potential conflict of interest

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation under Grant [number FA200405120003308PR]; and the South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development under Grant [number 10/105].