Terui Sachiko
Department of Communication, University of Oklahoma, 610 Elm Ave. #211, Norman, OK, 73019, USA.
J Immigr Minor Health. 2017 Feb;19(1):215-224. doi: 10.1007/s10903-015-0322-x.
While many may view language barriers in healthcare settings (LBHS) as a simple, practical problem, they present unique challenges to theoretical development and practice implications in healthcare delivery, especially when one considers the implications and impacts of specific contextual factors. By exploring the differences of contextual factors in the US and Japan, this review explores and highlights how such differences may entail different impacts on patients' quality of care and require different solutions. I conduct narrative review through library database, Google Scholar, and CiNii (a Japanese library database) with multiple search terms, including language barriers, healthcare, medical interpreter, and immigrant. I first present a diagram to show the pathways and process between language barriers and health disparities, using the literature reported in the US. Then, I examined the literature reported in Japan and discuss the needs for re-conceptualizing LBHS. The implications for future research will be discussed.
虽然许多人可能将医疗环境中的语言障碍（LBHS）视为一个简单的实际问题，但它们给医疗服务中的理论发展和实践意义带来了独特的挑战，尤其是当人们考虑到特定背景因素的影响时。通过探讨美国和日本背景因素的差异，本综述探讨并强调了这些差异如何可能对患者的医疗质量产生不同影响，并需要不同的解决方案。我通过图书馆数据库、谷歌学术和CiNii（一个日本图书馆数据库），使用包括语言障碍、医疗保健、医学口译员和移民等多个搜索词进行叙述性综述。我首先展示一个图表，利用美国报道的文献来说明语言障碍与健康差距之间的途径和过程。然后，我研究了日本报道的文献，并讨论了重新概念化LBHS的必要性。还将讨论对未来研究的启示。
