McEwen E, Anton-Culver H
Department of Community and Environmental Medicine, University of California, Irvine 92717.
J Fam Pract. 1988 Mar;26(3):289-91.
As language is such a fundamental tool in the determination of a diagnosis and in patient education, non-English-speaking patients and deaf patients often suffer from inferior medical care. Deaf adults and adults studying English as a second language (third- to fifth-grade English-comprehension level) were compared. Participants completed a survey and a test of commonly used medical vocabulary. The two populations did not differ significantly in education level or in vocabulary test scores. Deaf patients were often less able to speak to their physician in their customary language (sign language); as a result, they perceive greater difficulties in expressing themselves to their physicians and reexplain themselves less frequently in response to misunderstandings. It is clear that deaf patients should be recognized as a subset of non-English-speaking patients who are at increased risk for poor physician-patient communication.
由于语言在诊断确定和患者教育中是如此重要的工具，非英语患者和聋人患者常常受到较差的医疗护理。对成年聋人和将英语作为第二语言学习的成年人（英语理解水平为三至五年级）进行了比较。参与者完成了一项调查和常用医学词汇测试。这两个人群在教育水平或词汇测试分数上没有显著差异。聋人患者通常更难以用他们习惯的语言（手语）与医生交谈；因此，他们在向医生表达自己时感觉困难更大，并且在因误解而需要再次解释时也不那么频繁。显然，聋人患者应被视为非英语患者的一个子集，他们在医患沟通不良方面风险增加。
