Drop the Jargon – A focus on clear communication this Health Literacy Month

About 20% of participants in cardiac clinical trials have little or no understanding of what is involved1,2 This is not just an issue in research. Many patients also struggle to comprehend or remember information given to them by health professionals.

In one study, almost 80% of emergency department patients didn’t understand the information they were given5, while in others, up to 50% of health information was not remembered correctly by patients3, and fewer than half could recall medication changes after discharge4. You can see what this is like from the patient perspective at check-back, a resource developed to help individuals get the most from their health appointments.

Communicating with health professionals and researchers is even harder during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wearing face masks or using telehealth is challenging for most of us, but can be much harder where there are language or cultural barriers, or where people have hearing loss, visual impairment, or lower health literacy.

What can be done?

One barrier to understanding is the use of complex medical terms, or “jargon”. As clinicians and researchers, we can make it easier for everyone to ‘get’ what we are telling them.

Here are our top tips for language usage and comprehension checking:

  • Use plain language wherever you can. Introducing medical terms is fine, just explain what you mean by them.
  • Confirm that your patient has understood by using teach-back – asking them to explain back the information in their own words so you are clear they have understood.
  • If you are writing Explanatory Statements or other patient-facing materials, get them checked over by a consumer.
  • Chunk and Check. Give information in bite-sides pieces and give them time to digest it.
  • Write things down in action-orientated terms. Generic medical pamphlets don’t work for most people, so jot down the most important things that your patient has to do.
  • Encourage patients to bring someone with them to appointments.

References

  1. Yuval R, et al Perceived Patient Comprehension in Acute and Chronic Cardiovascular Clinical Trials, Cardiology; 2003; 99, 2. P.68
  2. Yuval et al, Patient Comprehension and Reaction to Participating in a Double-blind Randomized Clinical Trial (ISIS-4) in Acute Myocardial Infarction. Arch Intern Med. 2000;160(8):1142-1146
  3. Kessels, R. 2003. Patients’ memory for medical information. 96(5), 219-222.
  4. Osten, 2021. Recall and Understanding of Discharge Information in Observation Ward Patients: An Explorative Observational Study. Front. Commun., 07 September 2021 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2021.736095
  5. Engel, K. 2009. Patient comprehension of emergency department care and instructions: are patients aware of when they do not understand? Annals of Emergency Medicine. 53(4), 454-461.e415.

About Monash University

Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.

With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.

As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.

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