Department of Psychology, University of California , Riverside.
Health Commun. 2020 Sep;35(10):1248-1255. doi: 10.1080/10410236.2019.1625001. Epub 2019 Jun 3.
A multi-method approach was used to explore correlates of technical and complex language use within 145 audio-recorded physician-patient interactions. When discussing the prospect of surgery, physicians used more technical and complex language (more jargon, larger words, longer sentences) than patients on average. Patients' demographic characteristics (education, health literacy, English fluency) and markers of health (condition severity) inconsistently predicted physicians' and patients' use of complex and technical language. Interactions with happier and more hopeful patients involved less technical and complex language, but physicians' language use was unrelated to patients' emotions following the consultation. Finally, physicians' use of more technical language predicted greater patient satisfaction following the consultation, and physicians' use of more complex language at the initial consultation predicted better adherence by patients following surgery. Our results highlight the nuanced role of language use within healthcare interactions and identifies language complexity as a novel target for health communication research.
采用多方法手段，对 145 段医患间音频记录的交流互动进行分析，探讨其中技术和复杂语言运用的相关因素。在讨论手术前景时，医生比患者平均使用更多的技术和复杂语言（更多行话、更大的词、更长的句子）。患者的人口统计学特征（教育、健康素养、英语流利程度）和健康指标（病情严重程度）并不能一致地预测医生和患者对复杂和技术语言的使用。与更快乐、更有希望的患者互动时，语言的技术和复杂程度较低，但医生的语言使用与患者咨询后的情绪无关。最后，医生使用更多技术语言预示着咨询后患者的满意度更高，而医生在初始咨询中使用更复杂的语言预示着患者术后的依从性更好。我们的研究结果强调了语言在医患互动中的微妙作用，并将语言复杂性确定为健康传播研究的新目标。
